J&J vaccine delivery starts this week

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is expecting delivery of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines starting this week.

During the turnover ceremony of two million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last Friday, World Health Organization (WHO) country representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe confirmed the upcoming delivery of 3,024,000 doses of Janssen Pharmaceutical’s COVID-19 vaccine.

“He said the delivery of the one-shot vaccine is expected to begin starting next week,” the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 said in a press statement late Saturday.

Abeyasinghe said the doses are part of a sharing agreement with the United States and COVAX Facility.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the donated J&J vaccine doses would be deployed regionally, with each region expected to receive at least 100,000 doses.

Meanwhile, Galvez said the short shelf life of COVID-19 vaccines should not be concerning as local governments are expected to ramp up their daily vaccination rate once they receive more supplies.

With the Philippines’ increasing vaccination rate, Galvez said he was confident that the government could administer as many as two million jabs weekly.

“There is no issue on the vaccines that have shorter shelf life because we can administer them immediately. We have no problem with that,” he added.