The Philippines is on track in its preparation for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine introduction, roll out and distribution, World Health Organization Coordinator for Essential Medicines Health Technologies Dr. Socorro Escalante said during the first special “The Laging Handa: COVID-19 Vaccines Explained” public briefing on Wednesday.

“Sa nakikita po namin (From what we have seen), the Philippines is on track in terms of its preparation for the vaccines introduction and roll out including the distribution of the vaccines in the country,” Escalante said.

She said the WHO has fielded the following criteria- national deployment plan, regulatory process, cold chain, and safety monitoring to determine the readiness of a country for a vaccine’s deployment.

“First, that the country has a national vaccines deployment plan, which we understand the Department of Health along with Secretary (Carlito) Galvez (Jr.) and other sectors are already developing and are in the final stage of development. The second one is the regulatory readiness. Is our FDA (Food and Drug Administration) ready to accept the applications of the vaccines?” she said.

She underscored the importance of President Rodrigo Duterte signing the Executive Order 121 allowing FDA to grant emergency use authorization (EUA) to potential Covid-19 vaccines that would be made available in the country.

“It is important to note that in the Philippines, the President has signed the Executive Order authorizing the FDA to grant EUA for vaccines and to recognize assessment of these vaccines from other stringent regulatory authorities,” Escalante said.

“That is a very important step that makes the country ready because the first filter for vaccines to be deployed in the country is about the regulatory process to ensure that all vaccines coming into the country are of safe, efficacious and of good quality,“ she added.

On the storage of vaccines, Escalante said the country has an ultra-cold chain in place, which is important as this is the new technology for ribonucleic acid vaccines.

“We don’t have a cold chain before, but we know that the country already has some existing cold chain equipment even in RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) and even the government is ready to deploy the ultra-cold chain and strengthen the cold chain of the country,” she said.

She also highlighted the importance of safety monitoring process as all vaccines have the potential of resulting into an adverse event, adding that the FDA is already working on the protocol to monitor the vaccines once its deployed.

“There are some aspects that are very important for the vaccines readiness in which the Philippines has already put in place,” Escalante added. CURRENTPH