Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 25) — The country is expected to receive 25 million coronavirus shots next month and over 114 million more in the fourth quarter, according to Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr.
Galvez said provinces will get a fair share of the vaccine doses.
“Our next distribution will be equitable based on the number of unvaccinated for the first dose and second dose,” he said during a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
“We are expecting that our main volumes, particularly from Pfizer, Sinovac, Gamaleya, COVAX, including Moderna, will have the bulk of 100 [million] plus doses by the fourth quarter,” Galvez added.
He noted that Metro Manila is only expected to receive 951,692 doses next month.
Regions III and IV-A will get 3.06 million and 3.81 million doses, respectively, in September. Regions I, V, VI, VII, VIII, X, XI, XII, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will receive over a million doses each, Galvez said.
By the fourth quarter, Region IV-A will receive the highest allocation with 17.47 million doses, followed by Region III with 14.03 million doses, he added.
Galvez also said vaccine manufacturers are no longer interested in multi-party agreements (MPAs), and would rather deal with the national government for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.
During the hearing, Galvez revealed that Johnson & Johnson and Sinopharm are currently not open to MPAs, while there are pricing and delivery issues with India’s Bharat Biotech.
The country has so far administered more than 30 million doses since the COVID-19 vaccination program kicked off last March.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. presents projected allocation of COVID-19 vaccines per region for this year pic.twitter.com/Mve7FrvRud
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) August 25, 2021
