MANILA — The total COVID-19 vaccine wastage in the Philippines is estimated to hit over 50 million by end of March, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed Thursday, citing the supposed hesitancy of Filipinos to be inoculated.

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During a Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said around 44 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been wasted.

"As of our current inventories, our wastage is 17.5 percent, the quantities would be 44 million doses plus," Vergeire said.

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According to panel chairperson Sen. Francis Tolentino's computation, another 6 million doses of vaccines are also set to expire this month, projecting a total of 50.74 million vaccine wastage by end of March.

Vergeire confirmed Tolentino's report.

"I confirm that these would be the amount if we already include those to expire by end of March," Vergeire said.

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The health official added that nearly 7 million doses of vaccines are currently "quarantined" pending the manufacturers' approval for them to be used past the expiration date.

"We have around 6.9 million doses which are currently quarantined as we define it since we are still awaiting from the manufacturers and FDA if these can be allowed to have extension of the shelf life," Vergeire said.

Tolentino said that vaccine wastage would continue to hound the government if the DOH fails to address public hesitancy.

"We are doing all things possible now so we can intervene and be able to ramp up again the vaccination," Vergeire told Tolentino.

As of March 8, the Philippines has 8,943 active COVID-19 cases.

Since the pandemic started almost 3 years ago, the country has tallied 4,077,302 coronavirus infections, of which some 66,176 resulted in deaths.

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To date, almost 73.9 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Of the figure, more than 21.5 million people have received their first boosters while 3.9 million have gotten their second boosters.