By Pearl Gumapos
The Philippine government will be using half of the 40 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines the country secured on children in the 12 to 15 age bracket, vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. said Sunday (June 20).
The government and Pfizer on Saturday signed a supply agreement for 40 million doses of vaccine to be delivered to the Philippines in the third and fourth quarters of 2021.
“Our original plan is to have only 15 to 25 million, but considering that we are only opening up the vaccination for children like in Europe and also in the United States and Israel, we are anticipating that we have to program or we have to prepare for that,” Galvez told the Philippine News Agency in an interview.
As soon as the expert panel gives a go signal and guidelines are issued, the government will start vaccinating those in the said age bracket, Galvez said.
“Once we have their approval for most vaccines to be used on children and once the DOH makes the guidelines, we will do so,” he said.
Galvez is confident that with the signing of the Pfizer supply deal, the country will be able to achieve its targeted 184 million doses of COVID-19 administered before the year ends. – jlo
