By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan | Philippine News Agency
National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. assured that the country has sufficient storage space to safely keep all the arriving COVID-19 vaccines.
Galvez and other officials welcomed the latest delivery of the 1,363,300 doses of U.S.-made Moderna vaccine at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 in Parañaque City Saturday (Oct. 9) afternoon.
“Nagkaroon na tayo ng inventory ng storage freezer [with] negative 70 and 80 [low temperature capacity], meron tayong total na 28 to 30 million [doses] storage [capacity],” he said in an interview with reporters.
Galvez also said the Department of Health is now coordinating with regions, provinces, and municipalities to hasten their vaccination programs to ensure that the COVID-19 vaccines are not wasted.
“Kayang-kaya po natin ‘yun, may storage capacity po tayo,” he added.
Galvez said of the new shipment of Moderna vaccines, 885,700 were procured by the government while 477,600 doses were bought by the private sector represented by port operator International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) through a trilateral agreement.
‘Harvest time’
“This is a remarkable development in the vaccine supply in the country. As we call it, this is now our harvest time. For the past days, the country has been receiving 1.5 million doses of vaccine on a daily average,” Galvez, who is also the vaccine czar, said.
He said more than 14.25 million doses of vaccine were delivered from Oct. 1 to 9, a massive improvement compared to the situation months ago when the country had to rely on donations from other countries and organizations to supply life-saving jabs to the people.
Meanwhile, U.S. Embassy Deputy Councilor for Economic Affairs Zeenat Syed said: “The United States is very proud that U.S. vaccines are supporting the [Philippine] government’s vaccination effort and that they are helping vaccinate millions of Philippine citizens against COVID-19.”
With the vaccine supply stabilizing, Galvez hopes that more people will get vaccinated so that the country can hit its target of fully vaccinating 50% of the 77 million eligible population by year end and safely reopen the economy.
“With the steady arrival of these vaccines, we call on our local leaders including our regional directors, offices, and IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] to set aside political differences and focus on our efforts to inoculate as many people as possible,” Galvez said.
The Philippines has so far received 85,575,600 doses of vaccines since deliveries started in February this year.
Of the vaccines delivered, 48,925,516 doses were administered nationwide as of Thursday.
More than 26 million people have received their first dose while 22.8 million have been fully vaccinated. (PNA) – jlo
