5M doses of Covid-19 jabs arriving this week

MANILA – Over five million doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines will be arriving within the last week of August.

National Task Force Against Covid-19 Chief Implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., announced on Monday that the arriving vaccines include 3 million doses of Sinovac, 1.8 million doses of Moderna, and over 300,000 doses of Pfizer.

“Talagang tuluy-tuloy na po ang daloy ng bakuna at meron pa po tayong five million na makukuha ngayong week (There will be a continuous flow of vaccine delivery and we will be receiving five million doses this week),” Galvez said during a vaccination event at a mall in San Mateo, Rizal.

The government is also expecting another 10 million doses of Sinovac, 5 million doses of Pfizer, and about 3 million Moderna doses soon after.

A total of 748,000 doses of Moderna jabs procured by the private sector will be part of the expected shipments.

Galvez said there are pledges of donation of more Covid-19 vaccines, including 1.5 million Pfizer doses and 1 million AstraZeneca doses.

“At meron pa pong isang bansa na baka magdo-donate po ng (There will be one country that might donate) another 3 million doses,” he added.

Galvez attributed the increasing number of vaccine donations to President Rodrigo Duterte’s good bilateral relationships with other countries.

“Iyan ay bunga ng magandang relationship na na-build ng ating Presidente sa ibang mga bansa (This is the result of the President’s good relationship built with other countries),” he said.

Galvez also reported the country has already administered over 30 million Covid-19 jabs nationwide, including 13,049,907 who are fully vaccinated.

The vaccine czar again cited the efforts of local government units, the private sector, and even individuals who are pushing for an effective and successful Covid-19 vaccination program nationwide.

Galvez encouraged the public to trust the scientific evidence of the vaccines, regardless of brands, as they all underwent safety screening procedures.

The Philippines already has 48,522,890 doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Aug. 20, of which 14,662,190 million doses were delivered within this month alone.