Russia, China to deliver bulk of Covid-19 vax in Q2: Galvez

MANILA – Majority of the supplies of the coronavirus vaccines set to arrive in the second quarter will be coming from pharmaceutical firms in Russia and China, National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Monday.

“We are thankful that China and Russia have given their commitment of support and we have seen that the only hope that we have right now for the meantime, for this second quarter is that the majority of the supply will be coming from Russia and China,” Galvez, also the country’s vaccine czar, said in a statement.

As of April 10, he said 1,137,534 Filipinos have been vaccinated. Of the number, 851,876 are healthcare workers, 44,187 are senior citizens while 110,457 are persons with existing comorbidities.

To date, some 131,023 healthcare workers have completed two shots of the Covid-19 vaccine.

“With the arrival of the additional 500,000 Sinovac vaccines (on April 11), this will surely help in our effort to vaccinate more Filipino people and put an end to this pandemic,” Galvez said.

Galvez said a total of 2.5 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine were already delivered in the Philippines.

These, he said, include the 1 million doses donated by the Chinese government and 1.5 million doses purchased by the national government.

“The majority of the newly-arrived 500,000 doses will be sent to areas in the Visayas and Mindanao since a substantial portion of the previous Sinovac’s doses have already been allocated in Metro Manila, and neighboring provinces,” he said.

The first batch of the Sinovac jabs was deployed to the Department of Health (500,000 doses), Armed Forces of the Philippines (70,000 doses), and Department of National Defense (30,000 doses), as of April 11.

Some 500,000 doses of CoronaVac and 523,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were distributed across 17 regions nationwide.

The DOH has also delivered 100 percent of the 525,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine since March 17.

Galvez, meanwhile, said the country is slated to receive a total of 1 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine on April 22 and April 29.

Another 2 million doses of government-procured CoronaVac vaccine will be delivered in May.

Galvez, likewise, said the government is set to hold a vaccine simulation rollout for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine manufactured by the Gamaleya Research Institute.

Some 20,000 doses of Sputnik V will be used in the vaccination dry-run.

“Mayroon tayong (We will have our) mini-rollout for 20,000 doses of Sputnik V kasi ito talaga medyo sensitive ang logistics (since the logistics is quite sensitive) because it will be in ampoules and not vials,” he said.

Galvez noted that Sputnik V will be administered in a separate manner per dose, as the first dose contains Adenovirus-26 particles while the second dose has Adenovirus-5.

Some 500,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine are expected to arrive this month.