Vaccine czar, DOH chief inspect Unilab cold storage facility

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III inspected Unilab Inc.'s cold storage facility in Biñan, Laguna, on Wednesday to ensure the country's readiness for COVID-19 vaccine arrivals.

The Unilab facility boasts a cold storage room with a temperature range of 2°C to 8°C, capable of holding up to five million vaccine doses and equipped with a high-technology alarm system.

Unilab has the capability to transport vaccines while maintaining their required temperatures and stated they are helping the government as a service, not as a business expansion.

While the partnership between Unilab and the government is not yet formalized, Galvez and Duque indicated plans to establish a memorandum of agreement with private companies before the vaccines arrive.

The Philippine government aims to procure 148 million vaccine doses to inoculate 50 to 70 million Filipinos this year.