The first batch of the American COVID-19 vaccine Pfizer arrived in the Philippines Monday (May 10) evening.
The 193,050 doses of Pfizer aboard flight LD457 landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 at 8:51 p.m. on Monday.
The batch came from the Covax facility of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The vaccines were immediately brought to the Pharmaserv warehouse in Marikina which can accommodate the vaccines’ storage temperature requirement of -70 to -80 degrees Celsius.
They are set to be distributed in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao.
The Department of Health (DOH) assured that the vaccine priority list from A1 to A3 — medical frontliners, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidity — will be followed for the Pfizer vaccines rollout.
The arrival of the Pfizer vaccine was delayed for a few months due to an issue in the indemnification deal. However, National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) Deputy Chief Implementer Secretary Vince Dizon said the issue has already been resolved, therefore the country may expect the continuous arrival of Pfizer vaccines.
“Mayroong indemnification fund na prinovide ang batas natin, at ’yung mga issues on indemnification na naging source ng pag-uusap ng Pfizer at ng Philippine government ay naresolba na kaya ngayon nandito na ang Pfizer,” Dizon said.
The arrival of 1.3 million more Pfizer doses is expected this month.
Meanwhile, WHO Country Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeysinghe hopes that the vaccine confidence level of Filipinos will increase as the COVID-19 vaccines continue to arrive in the country.
“We have seen challenges on the global supply chain, and so, we may not be able to access the full quantity of vaccines. Of course, we guarantee from the Covax facility that we will send vaccines to protect 22 million people in the PH within this year,” he said.
As of May 8, the total number of COVID-19 vaccines that has arrived in the country is 7,540,600.
Report from Ryan Lesigues/NGS-jlo
