The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday revealed that the 1 million doses of Sinovac vaccine delivered last week to the country have been held for distribution due to lack of a certificate of analysis (COA).
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that they are awaiting for the COA that will be coming from the manufacturer.
“We cannot distribute or transport these vaccines to our recipients in different regions and local governments,” Vergeire said in an online media forum.
The COA is a requirement by the Food and Drug Administration before the vaccines are allowed to reach vaccination sites all over the country. Such certificate is needed to check if the product is in accordance with the emergency use authorization specification.
Meanwhile, Vergeire said that the over 2 million doses of AstraZeneca will be expiring in June and July were administered already.
“One hundred percent [of the AstraZeneca vaccine doses were] distributed already in different vaccination sites. There were 2.4 million doses that were administered already and only 100,000 doses are set to be administered…we have reached our target [to administer the doses of AstraZeneca],”Vergeire reported.
Likewise, the 2.2 million doses of Pfizer vaccines, which recently arrived in the country were already distributed, including the 100,000 doses of Sputnik V.
For this month, Vergeire said that they are expecting 11 million more vaccine doses that will arrive in the country like Sinovac, Sputnik V and Moderna.