DOH: Key vaccine hubs 'fully active' by February 10

The Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday, February 8, that all vaccine operation centers in local government units (LGUs) located in Metro Manila, Central Visayas, and Davao should be fully activated by February 10.

DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, who chairs the national COVID-19 vaccine operation center, gave the directive during a virtual press briefing, saying regional vaccine centers would be responsible for ensuring that LGUs in their areas were operational.

“Vaccine operation centers will be like incident command systems during disasters and will help national government to oversee the implementation of the vaccine rollout,” Cabotaje said in Filipino.

Why these areas?

Metro Manila, Central Visayas, and the Davao region were among the areas expected to receive the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines arriving in the next few weeks.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr earlier said the country was expecting to receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine and some 5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine from the COVAX facility within the first quarter of 2021.

Galvez listed the Philippine General Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines, East Avenue Medical Center, and Dr Jose N Rodriguez Hospital specifically will receive 117,000 doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine supplied by the COVAX facility.

After these hospitals located in Metro Manila – the epicenter of the pandemic in the Philippines – COVID-19 referral hospitals in Cebu City and Davao City will follow.

Cabotaje earlier said COVID-19 referral hospitals, DOH hospitals, Level 3 LGU and private hospitals, along with level 3 and level 2 hospitals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police should submit their vaccination plans to regional and local vaccine operation centers by February 10.

What vaccine operation centers will do

Vaccine operation centers in both the regional and local level will help in the planning, logistics, and coordination of different agencies involved in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, Cabotaje said. It will oversee issues from designating routes of vaccines, storage needs, to relaying information on adverse events following immunization to national officials concerned.

Regional operation centers will be co-chaired by the DOH regional director and a representative of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. Among its members were representatives from agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Education, Office of Civil Defense, PNP, and AFP, among others.

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said setting up regional and local vaccine operation centers will likewise allow tight coordination with national government should they need to step in and address needs of local governments tasked with deploying vaccines on the ground.

“This vaccine operation center would centralize and will be able to organize operations of each area in the country so we have one place to run to where issues may be addressed, and logistical requirements can be relayed, and so that the national government can respond to needs to local governments as we deploy these vaccines,” she said in a separate briefing on Monday.

For the national government, Galvez had announced the government set up a vaccine “war room” at the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ clubhouse in Camp Aguinaldo to monitor the distribution and deployment of vaccines from their transport to warehouses, all the way to when people get vaccinated. – Rappler.com

Read Rappler’s series of explainers on the Duterte government’s vaccine program below:

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