The government will hold internal final rehearsal two or three days before the scheduled arrival of coronavirus vaccines in the country to assure preparedness for the massive inoculation campaign, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Monday.

“Later, 2-3 days prior sa pagdating ng vaccines, meron po tayong final rehearsals na internal sa amin na talagang ipe-perfect namin ang timing (we will have internal final rehearsals 2-3 days before the vaccine arrival for us to perfect the timing),” Galvez said in a media briefing at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City.

Galvez, also the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer, cited the importance of conducting the full-scale simulation exercise, particularly the management of the vaccine logistics and the deployment of vaccines to cold chain warehouses.

Galvez said the country cannot afford to make mistakes in the vaccine arrival and deployment, given its limited global supply.

Ensuring a refined actual time and motion of the vaccine deployment, he said, will prevent the possibility of vaccine wastage.

Wednesday’s simulation includes laying down the coordination system “from the arrival of the vaccines to the airport’s point of entry, going to the warehouse and the point of distribution”.

Galvez said they will also hold a series of simulation exercises on vaccine transportation going to the other areas in Visayas and Mindanao.

Meanwhile, local government units (LGUs) are also conducting continuous simulations for the national inoculation program, he added.

He earlier cited the importance of LGUs’ preparedness to receive coronavirus vaccines.

The government expects the arrival of the 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines acquired through the COVAX Facility by end-February. (PNA)