The Philippines received on Friday morning (Sept. 10) 502,000 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses procured by local government units and the private sector.
The vaccines transported through China Airlines flight were procured under the “A Dose of Hope” program initiated by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion.
The delivery brings the total number of vaccines received by the country to 53,294,130 doses. This will be followed by additional CoronaVac on Friday evening.
“Kung ang second dose namin ay sa October pa, ‘yung mga available na bakuna ngayon [ay] pinapahiram talaga namin sa LGUs para walang nakaupong bakuna sa warehouse,” A Dose of Hope project lead adviser Josephine Romero said in an interview.
National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said 80% of the vaccines will be allocated to LGUs and the remaining 20% will be handed to the private sector.
The vaccines will immediately be deployed in the coming days since there are no issues regarding their certificate of analysis (COA). They are stored at the PharmaServ facility in Marikina City.
Meanwhile, Galvez said the government will not sign or enter into vaccine agreements with incomplete details as means of protection for the funds used by LGUs in securing vaccine supplies.
“I need to have prudent judgement on securing and entering into agreements. We cannot sign without the indicative delivery dates. Dapat kumpleto dahil lahat ng kontrata natin mayroon n’yan para alam natin kung sakaling magkaroon ng slippages,” Galvez said during a house committee hearing on Sept. 9. – Report from Kenneth Paciente/AG-rir
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