PH expecting delivery of 10M vaccines within June
By National Task Force against COVID-19
NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Pasay City, June 7 — Over 10 million anti-COVID vaccine doses are expected to be delivered to the country this June, as the government gears up for the inoculation of economic frontliners under the A4 priority group starting this week.
This was announced by Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., Vaccine Czar and National Task Force against COVID-19 Chief Implementer, during the arrival of one million government-procured Sinovac doses here on Sunday morning, June 6.
According to Galvez, scheduled vaccine deliveries for June include 5.5 million doses of Sinovac, which includes the latest shipment of one million doses, another one million doses on June 10, and the remaining 3.5 million doses later this month.
“Ito po ay nabili natin through the DOH (Department of Health) fund. GAA (General Appropriations Act) po ‘yan,” he said.
Also set to arrive this month are 100,000 doses of Sputnik V on June 8, and 250,000 doses of Moderna on June 21.
Meanwhile, 2, 280, 000 million doses of Pfizer vaccines from the COVAX facility are slated to be delivered on June 10, followed by 2,028,000 doses of AstraZeneca, also from COVAX in the third week of June.
All in all, the country is expecting to receive 10,158,000 vaccine doses in June.
“Natutuwa po kami kasi naging steady na ang supply ng COVAX (facility). Last month, nagkaroon tayo ng more or less 2.2 million (doses from COVAX), AstraZeneca and Pfizer,” Galvez said.
Start of A4 vaccine rollout
The government will begin the vaccination of the working population, or economic frontliners on June 7, with a ceremonial vaccination to be held at the Mall of Asia, Health Secretary and Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) Chair Francisco Duque III bared.
“Napakahalaga na sila ay maumpisahan na rin na mabakunahan,” Duque said.
The IATF chair clarified that although the vaccine rollout for the A4 population will primarily be focused on “centers of gravity,” or densely-populated areas, adjustments will be made based on the situation in other provinces that are also experiencing surges in COVID-19 cases.
“Dito sa NCR Plus 8 (provinces), ito na nagko-constitute ang pinakamalaking negosyo, ekonomiya natin. Pero ‘yung ibang mga regions na may mga surge— Regions 6, 9 and 10, 11, 12, 13, BARMM, naka-ready na sila Sec. Charlie (Galvez) to deploy (vaccines) sa mga high spike areas,” Duque said.
“Ang target natin ngayong month, magkaroon tayo ng four to five million na vaccinations, so itong linggo na ito, ang target natin, maka six million (jabs) na tayo,” Galvez added.
The vaccine czar earlier said the government is looking to administer 500,000 jabs a day by the third quarter of this year, and increase this to 740,000 shots daily in line with its goal of achieving population protection.
Galvez is confident this target can be realized with the arrival of the country’s bulk vaccine orders starting July, and the simultaneous vaccination of the A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5 priority groups. (National Task Force against COVID-19)
