Technical Assistance on Strengthening the Operations of the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) for COVID-19 Vaccinations

The Philippine government through the Department of Health (DOH) is ramping-up the implementation phase of the COVID-19 vaccination program. Currently, the country has received 77,410,640 doses of seven (7) different brands of vaccines with the goal of inoculating the target population of 77,139,058 at the end of 2021. As of November 2021, the coverage rate of fully vaccinated individuals in the country is at 28.51%.

The DOH-led NVOC together with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Food and Drug Authority (FDA), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 has started its operations since 1 February 2021 with the active support of WHO, UNICEF and private sector.

As the complexities of vaccine roll-out relies heavily on coordination of different levels of governance and reporting, it is essential that NVOC strengthen its current capacity to provide technical assistance in the field and efficient data management including end to end inventory of vaccines for timely provision of analysis to decision-makers and implementers.

In January 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) Philippines engaged the Field Epidemiology Training Program Alumni Foundation, Inc. (FETPAFI) under an Agreement for Performance of Work (APW) contract to provide technical assistance in strengthening the operations of the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) for COVID-19 vaccines in the regional and national level.

For the next 6 months, FETPAFI will gather the manpower to provide needed data management and technical support in strategic areas/offices of the DOH specifically at the Field Implementation and Coordination Teams (FICT) and Supply Chain Management Service (SCMS) to comply with the objectives of the vaccination roll-out, through the recruitment, training and supervision of field coordinators in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, and data managers/analysts in NVOC and SCMS.