CEBU CITY, Feb. 10 (PIA) -- The Department of Health (DOH) Region 7 Director Dr. Jaime Bernadas said the simulation exercise of the cold chain and logistics management of the COVID-19 vaccines held Tuesday was generally successful.

During the DOH-7 media forum, Bernadas said "We all witnessed yesterday a simulation exercise that would give us lessons, give us at least the actual picture of what will happen as soon as the vaccines come on its first journey to Cebu and for Central Visayas."

"The exercise was meant to orient our partners, our media and the public on how the national government and the recipient regional offices and the recipient hospitals respond to the transport of the vaccines which is very much critical, the time element of which is very much critical in the handling and distribution of the vaccines," he added.

Bernadas said the simulation took 70 minutes and was within the projected timeframe with some minor "kinks" observed which have already been addressed and will be corrected during the actual arrival of the vaccines.

The regional director said one of the minor hitches was on logistics such as the monitor of the temperature log that should have been made visible for the recipient.

Bernadas said "the biggest problem in the transport of this vaccine is how it would come to Cebu from Manila - the time element that will be covered as soon as it arrives from outside the Philippines to the Manila international airport, and then the travel to RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine), also the allocation for where these vaccines would go, the time it will arrive in Cebu, and the monitoring of the temperature of the transport vehicle. The transport vehicle would be the vans, airplanes, and the vaccine carriers. Another would be the availability of the recipient institutions of the necessary specialized storage facility. All of these should be in place so that the temperature of the vaccine can be preserved as it comes and during in transit."

Bernadas said the regional vaccination program is patterned after the national vaccination plan which targets 100 percent of the population with the initial 35 percent as the frontliners, senior citizens, indigent population, and the rest of government frontliners and partners in the hospitals and private sector.

"We all know that the initial targets for the vaccination program are our partners in the hospital system. The first target would be the personnel of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) as our main COVID referral hospital for the region," the DOH official said.

The first batch of vaccines that would arrive in the country is made by Pfizer, Bernadas confirmed.

VSMMC Medical Center Chief Gerardo Aquino said there is a total of 2,904 employees submitted to the list for the inoculation program.

He said they have already prepared two floors for the vaccination rollout at the center of Behavioural Sciences building.

Meanwhile, Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) Asec. Jonji Gonzales said on behalf of Sec. Michael Dino, that upon the offer of the Project Balik Buhay Chairman Edmund Liu, OPAV will put up a vaccine center at the Oakridge Business Park, Mandaue City where a daily briefing by Chief Pathologist and COVID-19 spokesperson Dr. Mary Jean Loreche of the DOH-Central Visayas Center for Health Development will be conducted.

Gonzales said this will educate Cebuanos on the need to support the vaccination program.

He added that this will also be the center where all the data and coordination between the different line agencies and local government units will be done.

He said this action center will serve the whole Visayas.

Gonzales said Dino wants to finish the vaccination program within the year or 10-12 months for the whole Central Visayas especially Cebu, but will "depend on the stock available." (idc/PIA-7)