The government is confident that the Philippines is prepared to receive vaccines against the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III gave the assurance following their inspection of vaccine storage facilities on Wednesday at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa, Unilab in Laguna, and Zuellig Pharma Corp. in Parañaque.
Galvez disclosed that they are also set to conduct inspection in other cold storage facilities in the coming days in preparation for the arrival of the vaccines. The government has yet to decide on its preferred facility in the private sector.
“The goal of the national government for this year is to be able import 140, 150 million doses of different kinds of vaccines. So, we have seven as of now that we are considering,” Duque stated.
Duque emphasized that delivery schedule of the vaccines have to be clear, considering that all the doses will not arrive at once.
“We can see for each vaccine, more or less, there is a rough statement of maybe $2 or $2.5 per dose. That’s our internet calculation. Because we also looked at some pharmaceuticals, that their ano (price)… more less (are) ranging from $1.5 to$ 2.5 per dose,” Galvez stated.
Meanwhile, Vaccine Czar Galvez confirmed that the Philippines has negotiated with Moderna. Under a multilateral agreement, the government is asking the American biotechnology company to supply 20 million doses in the country.
“We are negotiating on splitting the 20 million to 10 million for the private sector and the LGU and the 10 million for the government. And we are very happy to report that the business sector and the LGU already broke the five million mark,” Galvez elucidated.
– Report from Mela Lesmoras
