Philippines will not be affected by global vaccine shortage
MANILA – Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government will meet its vaccination target by year-end.
Speaking at the regular midday press briefing hosted by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Secretary Galvez confirmed the arrival of at least 500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines Thursday afternoon.
“We will meet the timetable because last Monday, we had our simulation with supply chain outfits such as Jollibee for the NCR Plus where over 100,000 need to be inoculated daily. We will need 3.3 million doses by June with some eight million does until August so we will have at least 15-20 million doses monthly,” he explained.
Secretary Galvez said they may have to recalibrate strategies where it was found there was some delay in certain towns and cities. He added there are certain areas which will finish their inoculation by October while others may end their vaccination during the first quarter of 2022.
“We have talked with the local government heads of different areas within the NCR as well as six other governors from Regions III and IV-A,” he said.
However, he added the vaccination program will have its full blast by June 1 where A4 and A5 will have their jabs.
Asked if the Philippines will be able to have enough vaccine supply amidst the global demand of vaccines, Secretary Galvez said unlike other countries which only three portfolios, the Philippine negotiated with seven vaccine companies plus the COVAX facility at the same time.
“We anticipated companies may probably have some slippage so we can still have six companies along with the vaccines under COVAX,” he explained. He added they may have to vaccinate at least a million to three million per week.
In a related development, a regular Philippine Air Lines plane arrived from Beijing at 5:55 P.M. today and had 14 pallets of Sinovac vaccines. Chief Implementer Secretary Galvez led Philippine officials during the simple welcome rites. (Melo M. Acuña)
Philippine Embassy officials supervise the preparations for the shipment of 500,000 doses of SinoVac. Meanwhile, the 500,000 doses arrived Thursday afternoon on board Philippine Airlines Flight from Beijing/NAIA Photos contributed by Dr, Ted Herbosa)
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