Moderna vax to be deployed to LGUs Friday

MANILA – The national government is deploying the freshly delivered 194,400 doses of Moderna vaccine to various local government units nationwide starting Friday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Thursday.

A total of 250,800 doses of US-made Moderna arrived Thursday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport via Singapore Airlines Flight SQ910.

Duque said 56,400 doses will go to the private sector, led by the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), while the remaining doses will augment the government’s vaccine supply.

The latest shipment was procured through a tripartite agreement with the private sector and was the second batch of Moderna vaccines to arrive in Manila.

“By tomorrow, mag-i-start na ang deployment, mayroon na itong (we will start deploying it, it already has a) COA [certificate of analysis],” Duque told reporters during the vaccine arrival at NAIA.

He confirmed that the National Capital Region Plus 10 will be a priority recipient of these vaccines, but did not provide details on allocations per area.

Initially, only NCR Plus 8—composed of Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, Batangas, Rizal, Bulacan, Metro Davao, Metro Cebu—were the areas prioritized for Covid-19 vaccination.

But Malacanang last month announced the extension to 10 other places namely, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, Zamboanga, Dumaguete, Tuguegarao, General Santos, Naga, and Legazpi hence the “NCR Plus 10”.

In the same interview, Duque revealed that over 5.8 million doses of vaccines manufactured by Sinovac, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) are scheduled to arrive from July 16 to 17.

By Friday, he said 1.1 million doses of government-procured AstraZeneca vaccines and 1,606,000 doses of the single-shot Janssen vaccine will be shipped to Manila.

The next day, arriving are 1.5 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac and the second tranche of Janssen shots also at 1,606,000 doses.