PH secures 202 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines

MANILA – The Philippines has secured 202 million doses of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines from various pharmaceutical companies and the World Health Organization (WHO)-led COVAX facility.

Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., the Chief Implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19, said 158 million doses were government-procured while 44 million doses were secured through the COVAX facility.

“Ngayon po makukuha po natin na ‘yung 202 million doses. Ito po ang mabibili po natin at ibibigay po sa atin ng COVAX (Now we can get 202 million doses from the COVAX facility),” Galvez said during the Cabinet meeting on Thursday night at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang.

A total of 300,000 doses of Sputnik V jabs will arrive next week and 1.3 million doses next month, along with 25,000 doses of Moderna vaccines procured by the private sector.

On May 20, another 500,000 doses of Sinovac will be delivered and 1.3 million doses by the end of the month.

Galvez said the government will be signing a head of terms, or summary of the intended terms of a commercial transaction, with Pfizer-BioNTech to purchase 40 million doses.

Supply agreements with Novavax and Johnson&Johnson will be finalized this week.

The COVAX facility might deliver 2.2 million Pfizer doses between May and June, Galvez added, and two million AstraZeneca doses to be allocated for second doses.

Overall, the Philippines will get a total of seven million doses in May and 10 million doses in June.

The country’s vaccine inventory may reach 21,829,050 by the end of June. The current tally is 7,759,050 doses, with 2,623,093 doses already administered.

The daily vaccination capacity in the National Capital Region also increased from 59,000 to 83,000. The government targets to expand it to up to 120,000 daily.

To date, the country has activated 3,458 vaccination sites with 5,155,957 doses in its stockpile.