By JON VIKTOR D. CABUENAS, GMA News
Published February 2, 2021 11:43am Zuellig Pharma Corp. on Tuesday said it has ordered 10 additional ultra-low freezers to boost its cold chain capacity in the Philippines, in anticipation of the incoming shipments of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. The additional ultra-cold freezers will be able to store over 7 million doses at temperatures as low as -70° to -80° Celsius which can be ramped up further if needed, on top of the 14 already deployed in the company s network across the country. We are honoured and excited to engage with the Philippine government to explore ways in which we can support measures to address this current crisis and help execute the national COVID-19 vaccination programme, Zuellig Pharma Corp. chief executive and area director Maikel Kuijpers said in an emailed statement.
Over 30,000 personnel will be needed in the government’s rollout of mass vaccinations against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
If the initial rollout of the vaccination program will have to vaccinate over 24 million Filipinos, “we will need about 35,240 vaccinators and an additional 176,200 personnel,” Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said at a senate inquiry on Friday.
“We have 4,504 vaccination sites with three vaccination teams per site and 100 people can be vaccinated per team,” he said.
In terms of how long the program would be, he said it would depend on the vaccines available. If the vaccines are from Pfizer Inc., it will take 25 days if the vaccination program is done simultaneously. For non-Pfizer vaccines, it will take 45 days.