Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 17) — The country can expect millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to arrive this week.
In a report during President Rodrigo Duterte’s address on Monday, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. said 4 million doses of Sinovac, 1 million doses of Sinopharm, and from 400,000 to 500,000 doses of Moderna vaccines will be delivered to the Philippines.
He added that around 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine would also be arriving on Friday.
“These vaccines will be equitably distributed to different regions,” Galvez’s report read.
During the briefing, Galvez said there were ongoing negotiations with vaccine suppliers on whether advance shipments of their products could be made.
“Ito po ang nilalakad natin sa American Embassy, dahil meron tayong…nabili po sa Pfizer, sa Johnson and Johnson at saka sa Moderna. Kinausap ko sila kahapon at sinabi ko na humihingi kami ng tulong na kung pwedeng ma-advance delivery ‘yung mga produktong ito dahil kung ma-advance ‘yan, malaking tulong sa atin para ma-accelerate ang ating bakunahan,” he said.
[Translation: We are working with the American Embassy, because we ordered vaccines from Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and Moderna. I spoke with them yesterday and I said we were asking for help if these could be delivered in advance, because it would be a big help in accelerating our vaccination program.]
Galvez also noted that vaccination efforts have slowed down in the past days, but this was mainly due to quarantine restrictions imposed in different areas.
According to Galvez, the country has received over 42 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, with over 27 million administered and over 12 million Filipinos now fully vaccinated.
