2M doses of AstraZeneca delivered

MANILA – Nearly 3.8 million doses of different brands of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines are expected in the country in the next few days.

Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III made the announcement during a press conference on Saturday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, where the Singapore Airlines flight carrying two million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the Covax facility landed.

“On Monday, that’s May 10, we are expecting the Pfizer delivery of around 193,000 doses. Then we will have also from Covax, Pfizer, 1.1 million doses and then additional 500,000 Sinovac, and about 2 million Sputnik V are coming,” he said.

Most of the AstraZeneca jabs will be given to the A1 (health workers), A2 (elderly), and A3 (persons with comorbidity) categories, assuring that those who received the first dose will complete their vaccination.

For the Pfizer vaccines that require storage with a minus 80 centigrade temperature, Duque said they will go to local government units that have the required facility.

“The Pfizer vaccine will be distributed maybe in the NCR (National Capital Region), in Cebu and Davao City, and other major cities that can handle the required temperature of minus 80 degrees centigrade,” Duque said.

To date, Duque said 2,226,973 individuals have been vaccinated, with 1,854,987 getting their first doses.

For the Sinopharm vaccine, Duque said he has instructed the DOH to seek an emergency use authorization so that the country will not have to return the vaccines to China.

The World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed Sinopharm for emergency use on Friday.

“This afternoon, the WHO gave emergency use listing to Sinopharm Beijing’s Covid-19 vaccine, making it the sixth vaccine to receive WHO validation for safety, efficacy and quality,” WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing, as reported by Xinhua News Agency.

Yu Qingming, chair of the Sinopharm Group, said this year’s output of the Sinopharm vaccine is targeted at more than one billion doses, and is expected to reach three billion doses in the future, according to Xinhua.