The Philippines is expecting 2.3 million doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines within this month until early April, National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday night.
Galvez, also the country’s vaccine czar, said the supplies are a combination of CoronaVac, some government-procured and the rest donated by China from the Beijing-based Sinovac company, and AstraZeneca.
“It will be coming from Sinovac, 400,000 from the Chinese donation. And then also we are working on the procurement through DOH [Department of Health], the 1 million Sinovac. So a total of 1.4 Sinovac vaccines,” said Galvez in a pre-recorded public address.
The World Health Organization (WHO), through the COVAX facility, might also deliver 979,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines on March 22 for a total of 2,379,200 doses, he said.
During the briefing, President Rodrigo Duterte said Galvez went to India to personally negotiate on the vaccine procurement.
“He says that it was a very good one and we can expect delivery in weeks,” The President said.
Duterte reassured indigent Filipinos will be among the government’s priorities in the national vaccination program, following the inoculation of healthcare workers and senior citizens.
The government is currently utilizing the 600,000 doses of Chinese-donated CoronaVac jabs and the 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca from the COVAX Facility to inoculate medical front-liners in public and private institutions nationwide. (PNA)
