Taguig Mayor Lino Cayetano (PNA photo by Lloyd Caliwan)
MANILA – The Taguig City government said it is prepared to deal with the logistical requirements of the Sputnik V coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines once these arrive in the country.
Mayor Lino Cayetano said Wednesday they are aware of the sensitive storage requirements of the Russian-made vaccines.
"Meron naman kaming vaccination site, yung Lakeshore vaccination site namin that can give 400 - 800 vaccines a day, five minutes lang ho mula dun sa aming cold storage facility so yun ho, kayang kaya ho natin (We have a vaccination site, our Lakeshore vaccination site that can do anywhere from 400 to 800 vaccinations a day, it's just five minutes away from our cold storage facility, so I think we can do it)," Cayetano said in an interview shortly after the activation of the city's eighth vaccination hub at Bonifacio High Street East in Fort Bonifacio.
Sputnik V jabs are required to be stored at a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius and must be administered within two hours after being thawed.
He added that the city's health workers are more than capable of handling these jabs.
Taguig is among the five local government units in Metro Manila which were allocated the Russian-made jabs due to its cold-storage capabilities.
To ensure the proper utilization of the Russian-made vaccine, Cayetano said that they are now conducting time-and-motion studies with the Philippine National Police on how fast the vaccines can be transported to the vaccination sites.
"The city is ready and we have been doing simulations since last week," he added.
Also, Cayetano said Sputnik V vaccines will be a great help once it arrives in the ongoing fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as it provides his constituents an additional weapon against the deadly disease.
Earlier reports said Sputnik V was found to have a 91.4 percent efficacy against Covid-19.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Wednesday said the arrival of the initial batch of 15,000 doses of Sputnik V jabs was delayed due to “logistical challenges”.
He, however, assured that National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. is doing his best to address the logistical problems. (PNA)
