Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 27) — Coronavirus vaccines stored in facilities in Marikina City remain safe despite the rainy weather, according to the country’s top health official.
In Tuesday’s Laging Handa briefing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the doses were stored in areas safe from floods.
“Ang mga bakuna naman ay nakapaloob sa isang mataas na lugar doon sa…storage location or areas para ligtas ang ating mga bakuna.”
[Translation: The vaccines are kept in an elevated area in the storage location or areas, so they are safe.]
He added that before contracts were signed with the storage facilities, situations and issues like flooding and bad weather were addressed.
“Sinisigurado naman nito na bago makipagkontrata diyan sa mga logistics, third party logistics providers na talagang itong mga contingencies na ito ay natutugunan,” Duque said.
[Translation: We made sure before we signed the contracts with the third-party logistics providers that these contingencies were met.]
Duque also said transporting the vaccines could also be done as the logistics providers have large trucks that could go through floods, as long as these were not very deep.
In the same briefing, Duque said almost 17 million COVID-19 shots have already been administered, including around six million second doses.
