Enough vaccines until Aug. 17, says Galvez

MANILA, Philippines — There will be no shortage in COVID-19 vaccines until Aug. 17 as the country has a stockpile of more than 10 million doses, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) said on Monday.

NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Philippines has so far received 10,464,550 vaccine doses this month and is expected to get an additional 9,353,340 doses.

“The Philippines already reached its desired stockpile level of above 10 million doses. For now, we have exceeded it and we have 12,826,099 (doses). Our supply can last up to 32 days,” Galvez said. “We are confident that until Aug. 17, we will not have difficulties because of a shortage.”

He said the 12.8 million vaccine doses stored in different warehouses would last for 32 days if the average number of jabs distributed per day is 400,000.

Galvez said the Philippines has received a total of 27,922,360 vaccine doses or about 17 percent of the 164 million doses procured. The government is expected to receive the remaining 136.1 million doses within six months, he added.

“So we have ample supply until August. We are now looking at the month of September,” he said.

A total of 15.1 million vaccine doses have been administered, 10 million of them as first dose and 4.7 million as second dose.

“With the arrival of more vaccines, achieving a better Christmas this year will be on track,” Galvez said.

He said the government is redeploying vaccines to areas of concern such as Northern Mindanao, Western Visayas and Metro Manila following the detection of local cases of the more transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant.

Another 562,770 doses of Pfizer vaccine are set to arrive tonight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport from the COVAX Facility.

At least 2.5 million doses of China-made Sinovac vaccines will arrive tomorrow and Friday on board Cebu Pacific flights from Beijing.

The government deployed three million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the World Health Organization-led COVAX Facility and Japan as well as one million doses of Sinovac jabs purchased from China last week. Another 3.2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson jabs are being distributed to different areas.

Vaccine Express

Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo will bring her office’s Vaccine Express to provinces to help expedite the immunization of Filipinos against COVID-19.

Robredo said apart from the city of Manila, the drive-through vaccination would be implemented in Quezon City, Naga City and Cagayan de Oro City.

“We are already in talks with the Quezon City government. We will do the Vaccine Express the first week of August for jeepney drivers. We’re just ironing out the details,” the Vice President said yesterday.

Riders in Manila received their second dose of COVID-19 vaccines at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex.

Robredo said the local government of Naga, her hometown, requested assistance in the administration of 6,000 single-dose Johnson & Johnson jabs.

“They want to fast-track the deployment so we already sent a team there,” she said.

Robredo’s office is also bringing the Vaccine Express to Cagayan de Oro City upon the request of Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

She said the OVP has no access to vaccine supplies and is only providing volunteer health workers who can screen and vaccinate. – Helen Flores, Rudy Santos