Arrival of bivalent COVID vaccines delayed due to permits – DOH
MANILA, Philippines — While a department memorandum on the roll-out of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines was already signed, the Department of Health on Tuesday said there will be a “slight delay” in its arrival in the country as permits have yet to be coordinated.
The department last week said it was expecting around 391,000 donated doses to arrive in the country this week. The bivalent vaccine targets both the original COVID-19 strain as well as its Omicron subvariants.
“Rest assured that the [department] is exhausting all efforts to receive the vaccines by the end of the month,” the agency said, committing to provide updates on the vaccines’ arrival.
The delivery of the bivalent vaccines was earlier delayed after the state of calamity of COVID-19 expired in December 31. The state of calamity had guidelines on indemnification and immunity from liability required by vaccine makers and other partners.
The DOH earlier hoped the bivalent vaccines would arrive by end-March.
READ: Slight delays seen in delivery of bivalent COVID-19 jabs
As per the department’s latest numbers from March 19, the country has administered nearly 174.05 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with 24.178 million individuals already receiving booster shots. There were 4.377 million individuals who got their second booster shot since the government opened the vaccination to non-vulnerable sectors last month.
“The [DOH] continuously reminds the public to get vaccinated and boosted as vaccines remain to be the best long-term defense against COVID-19,” the department said. — Kaycee Valmonte
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