By Alec Go
Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. guaranteed on Tuesday, April 13, the arrival of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to cover the second dose inoculation of priority sectors initially injected with the vaccine.
“We can assure the public that iyong second dose po ng AstraZeneca darating po iyan. Nangako rin po ang COVAX na by end of April mayroon po tayo [We can assure the public that the second dose of AstraZeneca will be delivered. COVAX also vowed that we will have the supply by the end of April],” Galvez said.
“May ginagawa tayong mga contingencies just in case. But definitely mayroon po tayo [We have contingency plans just in case. But definitely, we will have the doses],” Galvez added.
The first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines used by the country were given by the COVAX Facility led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte approved in March 2020 the Department of Health’s (DOH) recommendation to use all the 525,600 AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the COVAX Facility for the first dose of frontline health workers.
The Philippines is expecting 17 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines aside from those coming from COVAX. A total of 11 million doses were secured by local governments and six million doses are for the private sector.
“Darating na po ang first [batch] noon, more or less 1.3 million this coming second quarter [The first (batch) composed more or less of 1.3 million doses will arrive this coming second quarter],” Galvez said.
“Mag-start po ang delivery ng June, and then tuloy-tuloy na po iyon hanggang maka-deliver po sila hanggang first quarter po ng 2022 [They will start delivering by June and will continue until the first quarter of 2022],” he added.
