PH to get steady supplies of Covid-19 vax starting June

MANILA – The government sees a stable supply of coronavirus vaccines in the Philippines beginning June as four pharmaceutical companies committed steady deliveries, National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said Wednesday night.

By June, the government is looking at a steady stockpile of nearly 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from pharmaceutical firms Sinovac, Moderna, Gamaleya Research Institute and Oxford/AstraZeneca.

Moderna is expected to deliver 194,000 doses, Sinovac with 4.5 million doses of CoronaVac, Gamaleya with 2 million doses of Sputnik V, and some 1.3 million doses of AstraZeneca that is part of the first tranche of Covid-19 jabs procured by the private sector through a tripartite agreement.

Galvez said the vaccines secured through the COVAX Facility, a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable access to vaccines led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi Alliance, would be delivered beginning next month.

The delays in COVAX Facility deliveries were due “to acute shortage and limited supply” of Covid-19 vaccines globally, he added.

WHO Representative in the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe has committed to deliver Pfizer BioNTech vaccines as soon as possible, Galvez said.

In total, the government is expected to receive 2,355,210 doses of Pfizer vaccine from the COVAX Facility before the end of June.

“Hopefully, magkaroon po tayo ng early deliveries dito sa May and also ‘yong AstraZeneca, baka magkaroon din po ng COVAX delivery (We hope for early deliveries) by May and also AstraZeneca vaccine (might be delivered through COVAX). Iyon po ang pinipilit po namin na magkaroon ng delivery (We are doing our best to have these deliveries),” Galvez said during the virtual public briefing of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Some 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered on March 4, followed by 38,400 doses on March 7, completing the 525,600 doses secured by the national government that is part of the first round of allocated doses from the COVAX Facility.

Meantime, Galvez also sees a steady supply of Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines in May.

He said the initial delivery of 15,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine, which was supposed to arrive last Wednesday, would be moved to May 1 due to “logistical challenges.”

“Because of the restrictions, nagkakaroon po ng problema sa mga flights dahil po may connecting po na flight (there were problems in connecting flights) from Moscow-Doha-to-Philippines kaya talaga pong nahihirapan po kami na ikarga po (so we really had a hard time to load the cargoes),” Galvez said.

Once delivered, the cities of Manila, Taguig, Makati, Parañaque, and Muntinlupa will each get an initial 3,000 vials for the pilot rollout.

According to the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Sputnik V has an efficacy of 97.6 percent, based on the analysis of data on the infection rate of coronavirus among those in Russia vaccinated with two doses.