117K doses of Pfizer vaccine to arrive in PH by April

MANILA – National Task Force Against Covid-19 (NTF) deputy chief implementer Vivencio Dizon said some 117,000 doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech will arrive in the country next month.

“Nag-commit na po ang WHO (World Health Organization) na darating po iyong 117,000 doses ng Pfizer ngayong Abril, sa susunod na buwan. Kaya malaking bagay din po ito lalung-lalo na para sa ating mga healthcare workers na priority nating matapos hanggang sa buwan ng Abril at Mayo (The WHO has committed that the 117,000 doses of Pfizer will arrive this April, next month. So this is also a big deal, especially for our healthcare workers who are our priority to get vaccinated by April and May),” Dizon said at the Laging Handa public briefing Wednesday.

He added the arrival of the Pfizer vaccine through the COVAX Facility will still reach the inoculation program for healthcare workers.

Some 3.4 million doses are needed to complete the vaccination of the country’s medical front-liners, Dizon said.

He said the country already received more than 1.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Sinovac and AstraZeneca, and another 2 million doses from the same vaccine makers will arrive within the month.

Once the 117,000 Pfizer vaccines will arrive in April, the country is expected to receive more than 3.2 million Covid-19 vaccines for healthcare workers.

Meanwhile, Dizon said the government has not yet released any budget for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines as those that arrived in the country were donations from the Chinese government and the COVAX Facility.

He added the budget will be released once the order made by the government will arrive, including the 1 million Sinovac CoronaVac doses that will come in this month.