Steady vaccine supply assured

PH government has 164 million doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines for 2021

MANILA – A “steady supply” of anti-COVID-19 vaccines has been assured for the next six months as the government has already earmarked 164 million doses through procurement and sourcing additional jabs from the COVAX facility and bilateral donations.

According to the National Task Force against COVID-19 Chair and Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana and NTF Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. during the pre-State Of the Nation Address (SONA) Forum with various different government agencies.

“We are now awaiting the delivery of 136.1 million additional doses. On track in our vaccination program implementation, we are looking forward to having a better Christmas this year,” Lorenzana said.

There have been 27,992,360 vaccine doses have been delivered from the 164 million doses received by the country.

According to a statement, 13.2 million jabs were bought by the government, 2.2 million were purchased by the private sector and local government units, while 10.2 million doses were COVAX-donated while 2.1 million doses came from bilateral donations.

It was learned the 164 million doses are composed of 26 million government-procured Sinovac doses with 40 million Pfizer-BioNTech), 13 million came from Moderna doses, 13 million were Moderna doses, while 17 million doses were from Astrazeneca vaccines.

The private sector and LGUs bought seven million doses of Moderna and 17 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.

There are two million does which will come from bilateral donations while 44 million doses have been promised by the COVAX facility.

The Philippines and COVAX agreed on a cost-sharing agreement for the purchase of five million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines.

“We can say we’re on track. Primary factor is that we have a steady supply,” Secretary Galvez said. He added LGUs capacity of administering 500,000 to 700,000 daily and despite some delays in the delivery, almost 400,000 jabs have been delivered on a daily basis.

As of Tuesday, the Philippines has utilized 15, 616,562 doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines across the country. About 10.5 million doses were given the first dose while over 5 million have been inoculated. (Melo M. Acuña)

Vaccine Czar CArlito Galvez, Jr. (File Photo/Melo M. Acuña)