The Philippines received on Friday (Sept. 17) around 660,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines bought under the A Dose of Hope initiative with the private sector and local governments.
National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. and Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion witnessed the vaccine arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.
At least 80% of the of the newly delivered vaccines will be allocated to local government units while the remaining 20% will be handed to the private sector.
“Sa lahat ng batch, ang private sector ‘yung [sa] mga empleyado at ‘yung may mga sobra, binibigay sa mga spouses nila. May ibang mga kumpanya na for dependents, depende yan sa kakayahan ng kumpanya,” Concepcion said.
Vaccine czar Galvez also announced the signing of a letter of intent by the government for the acquisition of additional AstraZeneca vaccine doses next year.
“We are looking for a possibility na makakuha tayo ng 20 million for early next year, we are still open for tripartite,” he said.
“Kung ang LGU at private sector ay kukuha ng tripartite, mas maganda kumuha tayo sa mababa ang presyo katulad nito $5 lang, nakikita natin effective siya sa variant,” he added.
The official also thanked the United States government for its additional 4.3 million donated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine through the COVAX Facility, which brings the total COVAX expected delivery of 10 million doses.
Meanwhile, around 190,000 second components of the Sputnik V vaccine will be delivered on Sept. 18.
More than 20 million individuals are expected to get fully vaccinated by the end of September. – Report from Allan Francisco/AG-rir
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