National Policy Against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar, Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., on Monday, said the government might begin to inoculate Filipinos against Covid-19 by the “third or fourth week” of February.

During the Senate inquiry on the government’s vaccination plan, Galvez said the initial vaccination of priority sectors might be pursued next month.

However, he did not divulge which brand of Covid-19 vaccines will be used for the inoculation.

Galvez said the initial batch of Covid jabs is expected to be delivered by Feb. 20.

At the Senate hearing, Senator Win Gatchalian asked what pharmaceutical companies the government has chosen for the vaccination campaign.

Galvez told Gatchalian that the government has already confirmed orders of vaccines from various pharmaceutical companies including Novavax, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and Covax.

The government has already secured 40 million vaccines from Novavax Inc., 30 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, 25 million doses of Sinovac vaccines, and 40 million doses of Covax vaccines, Galvez said.

He added that the government has also ongoing negotiations with other pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer Inc., Johnson&Johnson, Moderna, and Russia’s Gamaleya.

Galvez said the government is targeting to close deals with other pharmaceutical companies on Jan. 11, to secure more doses of Covid-19 vaccines for the country.

“If we will able to lock-in all the documents, two weeks from now. This week we will have the signing maybe with J&J, with AstraZeneca, and also hopefully with Pfizer. All-in-all we can have at least 100 million doses and if we will be successful in our negotiation and consummate all the vaccines we can have 144 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine,” Galvez said. (PNA)