Just one week, Galvez says of delayed vaccine arrival

MANILA – The delay in the arrival of the coronavirus vaccines from the World Health Organization-led COVAX Facility will take only one week, National Policy Against Covid-19 chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., assured on Friday. 

“I think the delay is only for one week,” Galvez, the country’s vaccine czar, said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

The government was originally expecting the arrival of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines by the third week of February.

Now it all depends on the processing of documents and the availability of supplies.

“Nakikita po talaga natin na yung Pfizer is the most in-demand all over the country at tinitingnan din po natin yung availability that it will be coming from Belgium or (the) US. So nakikita natin talaga ngayon that they are running out of the vaccine (We can see Pfizer is the most in-demand all over the country and we are also looking into the availability that it will be coming from Belgium or the United States. We are seeing now that they are running out of the vaccine),” he said.

Galvez cleared that the government is not causing the delay.

“Yung tinatawag nating (The) delay is not coming from the Philippine government. We are only on the receiving end and we are finishing our documentation on time,” he said.

Galvez further assured that the government and the COVAX Facility are working out the indemnity agreement to prevent further delays.

“Pero tinatawag natin ‘yung indemnification clause, matagal na po namin hinahanap ‘yun pero binigay lang po only this week (But the indemnification clause, we have been looking for it but it was given only this week),” he said. “Now our lawyers are trying to finish it (indemnification clause) today so that we will have no more obstruction on the delivery of the vaccines.”

National Policy Against Covid-19 deputy chief implementer and testing czar, Secretary Vince Dizon, said on Thursday there would be “slight delays” in the arrival of 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines.

“May mga dokumentong kinakailangan na i-process bago dumating iyong mga vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca (There are some documents needed before vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca arrive),” Dizon said, adding that the Department of Health, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca would be working on this with the assistance of the WHO and through the COVAX Facility.

Centralized purchase 

Galvez said vaccine procurement globally is done through a centralized process.

“Ang kagandahan ng (The good thing about) centralized is that we can dictate a price. At the same time, we can order big volumes,” he added.

As for local government units, they will have to go through the tri-partite agreement.

“They know that the procurement is through the tripartite agreement, not direct purchase, because no vaccine manufacturer will allow that kind of procedure,” Galvez said.