COMMONWEALTH, Quezon City — With the country now in postpandemic phase, the Commission on Audit (CoA) has flagged the Department of Health (DoH) over the P152 million worth of ultra-low-temperature freezers procured by the government for the Covid-19 vaccination program and are now in danger of going to waste

Based on the special audit conducted from May 2023 to January 2024 on the national vaccination drive against the coronavirus, state auditors noted that a number of the vaccine freezers remain “idle or unutilized” even as these could be repurposed for preserving cancer medicines, clinical specimens, microorganisms and other 'sensitive' biological products for research.

“This nonrefocusing or nonrepurposing of these valuable assets, with an estimated total value of P152,118,000, hinders their potential to contribute to other critical health-care needs,” the CoA audit findings stated.

“Failure to properly repurpose these freezers could also result in failing to maximize the government funds spent and the value of donations on the said equipment,” it noted while adding that the freezers could last up to 10 years.

The audit report showed that 243 out of the total number of freezers are in “good condition” as of July 2024, 166 were purchased by the government while the rest came from donors.

The equipment was used to store specific Covid-19 vaccines, especially the Pfizer-BioNTech brand that needed to be kept and transported at temperatures ranging from minus 90 degrees Celsius to minus 60 C. The government bought these freezers to comply with the operational guidance for an ultra-cold-chain system set by the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund.