NTF eyes monthly vax supply of 25M-30M doses

MANILA – The government’s vaccine acquisition team is renegotiating with manufacturers to hasten the deliveries of Covid-19 jabs, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. reported on Saturday.

The vaccine czar and Chief Implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 said the renegotiation includes the fast-tracking of schedules and increasing the volume of shipment so that “we could meet the country’s monthly requirement of 25 million doses”.

“From the initial 19 million doses that are scheduled for delivery monthly, the NTF was able to raise this to more than 22 million doses,” Galvez said in a news release.

In the first two weeks of this month, Galvez said more than 8.2 million doses arrived, both donated and procured by the national government, local government units, and the private sector.

“We were able to administer 3.5 million doses per week and this already surpassed our expectation of just three million doses,” he said.

With the increasing demand for Covid-19 jabs due to a spike in cases, Galvez said the negotiating team will eventually increase the monthly deliveries to up to 30 million doses.

“Kaya, kapag dumating na ‘yung ibang bakuna (Once more vaccines arrive) and we are able to receive 25 to 30 million doses, we are confident that we can reach 750,000 to even one million jabs per day,” he added.

So far, the Philippines has over 42 million doses of Covid-19 jabs, with a total of 26,677,269 doses already administered nationwide.