By Alec Go
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday (May 24) said up to four million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in the country from the COVAX facility next month.
This is in line with the WHO-led COVAX Facility’s commitment to provide vaccines “to cover 20% of the population of the Philippines” composed of frontline healthcare workers and the elderly population.
“What we know is that we are expecting up to two million of Pfizer doses to come in before the end of June, maybe as early as within the next 10 days,” WHO Rep. Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said in a Palace briefing.
Abeyasinghe said there is no definite date yet on the arrival, or on whether the vaccines will be delivered in a single shipment or one million doses per delivery.
The WHO representative to the Philippines said they also “expect about two million doses of AstraZeneca to come in within the month of June.”
Meanwhile, he urged authorities to follow the list of priority prioritization “to enjoy donor confidence in investing in the COVAX Facility” and to achieve high vaccine coverage for health workers and elderly populations.
“While recognizing the other groups are important, it is clearly defined that the largest number of deaths and severe cases are from the A2 group,” he noted.
“This is important because as we have seen with the recent surge, with arrival of new variants which will continue to mutate, this virus will continue to mutate, we need to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected adequately and this needs to be prioritized,” he said.
The Philippine government is set to inoculate other essential economic workers and the indigent population belonging to Priority Groups A4 and A5 with the arrival of more vaccines, especially those procured by the private sector and government.
As of May 23, the Philippines has already administered 4,097,425 doses and ranks second among Southeast Asian nation in terms of administered COVID-19 vaccine doses. -rir
