MANILA – A pharmaceutical group welcomed Tuesday the Duterte administration's move to tap drugstores and clinics as COVID-19 vaccination sites for booster shots.

• Philippines taps drugstores, clinics to expand COVID-19 vaccination

“We are actually quite happy that the government has made this move,” said Dr. Beaver Tamesis of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP).

“We’ve been actually advocating for some time now that all healthcare workers, including pharmacists, be involved in this effort to really help control the pandemic,” he added.

“And yes, pharmacists are highly trained--they’ve been going through courses, particularly geared at vaccination: how to handle vaccines, what to watch out for when they give the, administer the vaccine to recipients, and the potential side effects, etc.”

Tamesis also said that pharmacies have the right equipment to store vaccines.

“Definitely the pharmacies, particularly the more--what they call flagship stores, they’re fully equipped with biorefs, so that they can actually handle the vaccines, keep it there under proper storage conditions, just before they administer to the recipients.”

He also said that pharmacies are safe sites for vaccination, as long as proper ventilation and other health protocols are in place.

“The most important of course is still ventilation, proper ventilation to ensure that the air is properly vented out, there’s exchange all the time and you don’t accumulate the virus particles floating in the atmosphere,” Tamesis said.

“So I think those would be the most important, aside from the physical distancing, proper wearing of masks, etc.”

“Now obviously you do not want to have other events happening, particularly swabbing or testing. Because those are very high-risk procedures that could potentially generate a lot of transmission, but jabbing itself, so long as everybody’s properly masked, should be okay in terms of the safety,” he added.

--ANC, 19 January 2022