Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 14) — The Department of Health (DOH) said discussions were ongoing with two other countries looking to donate bivalent COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines..
This is on top of a previously mentioned country that will be donating 300,000 bivalent doses.
DOH officer in charge Maria Rosario Vergeire on Tuesday said negotiations for the vaccines are ongoing.
“May mga bansa na nag-aalok pa rin sa atin ngayon,” she said. “We also have two other countries that are offering us donations ngayon for COVID-19 vaccines — bivalent ones. So patuloy ang ating negosasyon at pakikipag-usap sa mga bansang ito.”
[Translation: Other countries have also offered. We also have two other countries that are offering us donations for COVID-19 vaccines — bivalent ones. Negotiations and discussions with them continue.]
Vergeire did not give details on how many vaccines could potentially be received from the donors, nor was there any information on whether a deadline was seen in the talks.
She added, however that discussions on the 300,000 vaccines to be received from the first country are still ongoing.
\”The country that has confirmed to donate to the Philippines, patuloy yung ating pag-uusap [discussions are ongoing],\” Vergeire said.
“We need to determine the expiry dates of the vaccines they want to donate to us so we can determine kung [if] feasible if we can utilize the vaccines before the expiry date,” she added.
Last week, the DOH said the country was set to receive around 1.4 million bivalent vaccines — more than 1 million from the COVAX Facility by the end of March.
Vergeire added that the DOH was in the process of integrating bivalent shots into the agency’s entire COVID-19 vaccination program.
“Ibig sabihin, idudugtong yung bivalent vaccine dito sa mga bakunang tinatanggap ng mga kababayan depende sa sektor na pagbibigyan natin base sa rekomendasyon ng ating mga eksperto,” she explained.
[Translation: This means the bivalent vaccines will be connected with the ones received by the public — depending on the sector as determined by the recommendation of experts.]
