DOH Plans to Build More Cold Storage Facilities for Possible COVID-19 Vaccine

MANILA— The Department of Health (DOH) is preparing more cold storage facilities in preparation for vaccines against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) once they are available.

The Undersecretary of Health, María Rosario Vergeire, said they plan to build cold storage facilities by region or province to ensure proper custody and preserve the effectiveness of the vaccine, and said the current number of storage facilities will also have to serve other vaccines.

“We are talking with different groups so that we can expand our storage facilities in preparation [for] the COVID-19 vaccine, ”said the Undersecretary of Health, María Rosario Vergeire.

(We are talking to different groups so that we can expand our storage facilities in preparation for the COVID-19 vaccine.)

“Ideally for cold storage, we want each region to have storage centers or facilities … Hopefully by province so that when we launch implementation we can ensure that the vaccine can remain effective,” Vergeire said.

(Ideally, we want to have cold storage centers or facilities in all regions. But hopefully we can expand that to the provinces to ensure we maintain the efficacy of the vaccine.)

The storage facilities needed would depend on the type of COVID-19 vaccine to be released to the market, Vergeire noted.

Vergeire said 3 manufacturers have already requested a “regulatory process,” adding that talks are continuing with manufacturers and bilateral partners to move forward with the COVID-19 vaccine.

The government aims to vaccinate 20 percent of the population against the disease, and DOH is studying ways to expand that goal.

Several companies around the world are in various stages of trials for COVID-19, which has sickened more than 42.2 million and killed 1.14 million people worldwide.