Low dead space syringes to come with Pfizer doses from COVAX —DOH

February 18 ------ The coronavirus vaccines from the COVAX Facility will also come with low dead space syringes to ensure that all doses in each Pfizer-BioNTech vial will be extracted, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Wednesday. “Ito naman pong pagdating ng Pfizer vaccines na ito, tayo po ay nakakasigurado kasi it is packaged with this dead space syringe. Hindi po natin poproblemahin ‘yan sa ngayon,” Vergeire said in the government’s daily COVID-19 briefing.

In another briefing hosted by the Philippine Press Institute, Vergeire explained that a low dead space syringe is needed to extract all six doses from each vaccine vial. “In the ordinary syringes that we have right now, the healthcare workers are having difficulty in extracting the last dose… because you will be left with just 0.3 milliliters,” she said. “As what our suppliers have mentioned to us, we are having a shortage of these types of syringes,” she added.

Vergeire said the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) discovered a way to extract all doses using a different kind of syringe when it conducted a simulation. “They used a tuberculin syringe, it’s the smallest syringe that we have in the market… So even without this dead space syringe, by doing the right strategy, you can be able to maximize these six doses within each vial,” she said.

The health official said the Department of Health has asked PGH Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi if the hospital can share its method with other healthcare facilities. However, Malacañang said there is still no definitive delivery date for the 117,000 Pfizer-BioNTech doses that will be administered to health workers. The Philippines' indemnity plan is now in the hands of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Pfizer, the World Health Organization has said. The indemnity agreement will ensure compensation for those who will experience serious side effects from vaccines.

Source: gmanetwork.com