By Robina Asido

The government pilot-tested booster vaccination against COVID-19 in four pharmacies in Metro Manila on Thursday.

"Today we started in four pharmacies. Tomorrow will have additional, including two health clinics but these are just pilots," National Task Force Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer and Government Response Secretary Vince Dizon said in a radio interview on Thursday.

Astrazeneca and Sinovac were used in the start of the drugstore jabs.

"Next week, we will expand to big cities in the country to make the vaccine more accessible for our people," he added.

Dizon said the pilot testing was made to fix the process for the vaccination in pharmacies.

The pilot run of the “Resbakuna sa Botika” program began in four drug stores, namely Generika Drugstore in Signal Village, Taguig City; Mercury Drug Manila Malate Branch along Quirino Avenue corner Leon Guinto in Manila; Southstar Drug SSD Marikina Branch located Concepcion Uno, Marikina City; The Generics Pharmacy in Sun Valley, Parañaque City; and Watsons SM Supercenter Pasig in Ortigas, Pasig City.

"What I noticed when I went into a Generika drugstore in Taguig, the process was too long, so we said it should be shorter from five (steps) to three, it should just be registration, vaccination and monitoring," he said.

He said in the next few days people can go to the pharmacy vaccination site without prior registration.

"They will just have to undergo an additional step of filling up the forms before they will get their vaccination," said Dizon.

During the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said the available vaccines in the pharmacies are Sinovac and Astrazeneca.

"It’s part of the readiness assessment. That is why we started with the Sinovac and AstraZeneca, because these vaccines can be kept in a refrigerator which we call as domestic... a dedicated, even a small refrigerator for this vaccine," she said.

"After phase 1 or phase 2, we will see if we can already give them other vaccine brands, because Pfizer and Moderna need sensitive handling. So, we start with Sinovac and AstraZeneca to also familiarize the pharmacies in the vaccination," she added. DMS