More than 98% of the country’s vaccine supply has been distributed, with the few remaining doses serving as “buffer stocks”, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Saturday (June 12).
The remaining supplies at DOH warehouses will serve as a buffer in case the LGUs that received previous batches require additional doses, Vergeire said at the Laging Handa briefing.
She said the newly delivered one million doses from Sinovac and more than two million of Pfizer-BioNTech shots from the COVAX Facility will be deployed as soon as possible.
Vergeire said a shortage was noted in some areas due to delays in deliveries in May.
“Now that new stocks have arrived, their (LGUs’) supplies will be replenished and they can start vaccinating again,” she said.
As of this posting, the country has so far received more than 12 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, both procured and donated.
The latest shipment contained 100,000 doses of government-procured Sputnik V vaccines from Russia that arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on Friday night. (PNA) – jlo