Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 19) — President Rodrigo Duterte is growing more and more impatient as the arrival date of COVID-19 vaccines keep getting pushed back, his spokesperson said on Friday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque believes Duterte’s exasperation will hasten the process.
“Si Presidente nagsalita na, siya mismo naiinip na. Kailangan dumating na ang mga bakuna. Siguro dahil nagsalita ng ganyan ang Presidente, gagalaw na nang mabilis,” he told state-run People’s Television Network.
[Translation: The President has spoken; he is getting impatient. The vaccines have to arrive soon. With his pronouncement, maybe the process will be move faster.]
The delivery of the Philippines’ initial COVID-19 vaccine doses has been delayed due to different issues faced by government officials and manufacturers.
The arrival of 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines — initially thought to be the first batch of vaccines to reach the country on Feb. 13 through the COVAX facility — faced delays due to the hiccups on the required submission of an indemnification agreement. Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said officials were caught off-guard when Pfizer at the last minute asked for a bilateral agreement on their indemnification clause.
China’s donation of 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines are slated to arrive on Feb. 23, however, it cannot be shipped yet since it has not received an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
For Astrazeneca, Galvez said the complication lies in global manufacturing.
The United Nations said more than 130 countries — including the Philippines — don’t have a single COVID-19 vaccine. Just 10 countries have dispersed 75% of all vaccines, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday, calling progress in vaccination “wildly uneven and unfair.”
