DOH to get limited number of bivalent COVID-19 vaccines

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) bared a plan to procure only a limited number of doses of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said they would just place additional orders “as interests increase.”

“We have an agreement with the manufacturer and that it will be easy for us to reorder and have the deliveries at once,” Vergeire said in an interview with “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News Monday night.

As to the plan of having pre-registration as basis for vaccine orders, the health official said, “That’s going to be very tedious. At the same time, it will just limit those who are interested to avail of the vaccine because there are those who might decide a day before the vaccination, or there are those who might walk in on the day of the vaccination itself and we will allow them.”

“In fact, we did a survey in different areas of the country wherein it showed that 90 to 92 percent of those who received the first and second boosters are very much willing to receive the bivalent vaccines,” said Vergeire.

As to those who received the primary series or the first two doses, Vergeire said 68 percent are interested in availing of the bivalent vaccines.

“We have used that (survey) in estimating what we need and of course, it is going to be based on the priorities depending on the science that we have right now,” she said.

Vergeire stressed, “We will buy in small amounts to provide for the vulnerable population, and if we see that the demand is high, we will place an order for the second batch.”

“So, for us to be efficient in government and have this whole of society approach, those who wanted to place orders – like local government units, the private sector – by this time they would now know how much is the demand based on the data that they have,” she said at a press briefing yesterday.

Vergeire added that to come up with a master list first and wait for the list of those availing the bivalent vaccines to be completed, will entail too much work.

“At the same time, it would violate the rights of those who still would want to avail of the bivalent vaccines, but just have decided later,” she said.