Vaccine tracker to be launched this week – Palace

MANILA, Philippines — The government is expected to launch this week a vaccine tracker that will trace the progress of its COVID-19 inoculation program, Malacañang said yesterday.

“On Wednesday, we will launch our vaccine tracker. Let’s wait for it,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque confirmed.

He added 1.4 million more doses of Sinovac jabs might be delivered to the country this month, while Novavax vaccines and other orders are scheduled to arrive by April. Documents for the emergency use application (EUA) of Russian vaccine Sputnik V have also been completed.

Last week, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. said more than 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines may be secured in the second quarter.

DOH health promotion and disease prevention and control bureau director Beverly Lorraine Ho said 193,492 health care workers (HCWs) have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 and “90 percent of the stocks have already been distributed to the vaccination sites.”

At the National Capital Region, only 30 percent of the HCWs are yet to be given the vaccine.

The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine, as the pharmaceutical firm confirmed the safety of its COVID-19 vaccine “based on clear scientific evidence” amid reports of thrombotic events.

“And right now the WHO position is clear – the benefits from using AstraZeneca vaccine far, far outweigh the questionable link between the sporadic cases of blood clotting. Our position remains that we strongly advocate for all countries to continue to use the AstraZeneca vaccine,” WHO Representative to the Philippines Rabindra Abeyasinghe said.

AstraZeneca maintained “a careful review” of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) “has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.”

400K Sinovac doses

Philippine Airlines (PAL) is finalizing talks with DOH for the pick up of the remaining 400,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines from Beijing, China on March 22 using a commercial Manila-Beijing-Manila flight.

A PAL insider said negotiation is almost “a done deal” and PAL will fly to Beijing with some passengers on board to get the remaining 400,000 doses that will be kept in the special compartment of the plane and be back on the same day at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). – Sheila Crisostomo, Pia Lee-Brago, Rudy Santos, Delon Porcalla