The government will start the inoculation of the general population once the expected 61 million doses are delivered within September and October.

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., also the chief of the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19, said over the weekend that the government is expecting 12 million doses Sinovac and 20 million doses of Pfizer this month.

An additional 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jab will arrive on Monday.

Also set for delivery until October are 1 million doses each of Sputnik and Japan-donated AstraZeneca, 8 to 10 million doses from the COVAX Facility and 3 to 5 million doses of Moderna, according to Galvez’s report to President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday that was aired on Saturday morning.

In October, Galvez said the government will likely get 10 million doses of Sinovac, 10 million of Pfizer, 3 million doses of Moderna, a million doses of AstraZeneca, 3 to 5 million doses from the COVAX Facility, and 1.5 million doses from bilateral donations.

Among the expected supplies this month are the single-dose Sputnik Light from Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute.

“So we can expect now bigger volumes from COVAX. We heard that they will also deliver some AstraZeneca in the future,” Galvez said.

The inoculation of health care workers, senior citizens, adults with comorbidities, economic front-liners, and indigent people started one after another in March.

To date, the Philippines has 54,794,130 doses, with 38,625,270 of them already administered.

The National Covid-19 vaccination dashboard data showed 21,889,394 have received first dose while 16,735,876 have completed two doses as of Sept. 11. (PNA)