DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 9 Feb) – The Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao City has a cold storage facility that can meet the -70 degrees Celsius temperature requirement of the vaccines manufactured by the US-based Pfizer.
The Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao City. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
Mayor Sara Duterte said in her program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) on Monday that the SPMC’s cold storage facility can accommodate the Pfizer vaccines that will be delivered by the national government by the end of this month.
She said the local government is currently conducting an inventory on available cold storage facilities that can store other COVID-19 vaccines with similar ultra-cold storage requirements as Pfizer’s.
“But for all other vaccines that don’t need similar storage requirements, we can use our regular freezers or chillers,” the mayor said.
She said she has yet to know how many doses of the Pfizer vaccines will be delivered to Davao for this month from the national government. These initial doses will be given to frontline health workers of SPMC, the primary medical institution that caters to COVID-19 patients in the city.
The city has procured AZD1222, the vaccine jointly developed by the British firm AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which will be delivered by the third quarter of this year, and has initiated talks with Janssen Pharmaceuticals of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to procure additional vaccines.
As of February 8, the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao Region reported 75 new cases, bringing the total cases to 18,297, with 2,579 active, 14,974 recoveries, and 744 deaths in the region.
Out of the total, Davao City, which reported the highest COVID-19 cases in Mindanao, tallied 12,109 cases, with 1,353 active, 10,181 recoveries, and 575 deaths. Davao de Oro reported 1,013 cases, Davao del Norte with 2,617, Davao del Sur with 1,268, Davao Occidental with 211, and Davao Oriental with 1,079. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
