The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) on Tuesday (June 15) gave the assurance that the government has more than enough funds to acquire sufficient vaccine doses to achieve population protection this year.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said during a Senate committee-of-the-whole inquiry on June 15 that the Philippines is to get 68 million free doses, comprising 44 million from the COVAX Facility and 24 million doses from two brands.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez also confirmed that Japan will be donating “Japan-made AstraZeneca vaccines to some countries, including the Philippines.”
The donations are on top of the signed term sheet agreements with seven pharmaceutical companies in the country’s COVID-19 vaccine portfolio.
“We have already 6.5 [million doses] delivery for Sinovac. Also for Sputnik, we already paid almost 50% of the 10 million from the DOH [Department of Health] fund,” Galvez said.
“Also from Moderna, the 13 million is being paid by World Bank, and then the first delivery will be by June 25 of 250,000. Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are still under negotiation,” he added.
Galvez said at least 500,000 jabs per day have to be administered during the third quarter, in response to Senator Ralph Recto’s inquiry on whether population protection is attainable this year.
Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo Lacson questioned the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) need for an additional P25 billion fund amid the seemingly sufficient current and upcoming vaccine supply.
Dominguez said the additional fund is meant to cover the inoculation of 12- to 15-year-olds.
“That is not in our original plan because our original plan has only adults, and we only have 70 million adults in the Philippines. Now we have roughly 15 million teenagers,” he said.
The Philippines targets to vaccinate 50 million to 70 million individuals. At least seven million doses have been administered since the start of the rollout on March 1.
Out of the seven million, over five million individuals have been given their first shot, while 1.9 million have completed their two doses.
The country is expecting the delivery of another 11.67 million vaccine doses next month. – Report from Eunice Samonte/AG- jlo
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