Almost 700K doses of Pfizer vax arrive in PH

MANILA – Close to 700,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) arrived Friday night in the country.

These government-procured vaccines consisted of 240,000 doses for pediatrics, and 430,560 doses for 12 years old and above.

On Wednesday night, the country also received 1,872,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines procured by the government through the World Bank. Additional 930,000 doses also arrived on Thursday night.

In a public briefing on Friday, infectious diseases expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said he thinks national vaccination days must be held regularly. “The advantage of (conducting) the national vaccination day is the accessibility. We could inoculate many people, compared to when we don’t have that (vaccination drive) and only a few areas conduct the inoculation,” he said.

Solante said he hopes the government would continue and widen the reach of this vaccination drive.

The government held the fourth Bayanihan Bakunahan National Vaccination Days from March 10 to 18.

Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje earlier said this could be the last, as the government could focus on areas where there are a low vaccination rate, or areas that have yet to inoculate 70 percent of their target population.

Based on the Department of Health’s Covid-19 dashboard, the Philippines has administered 142,236,006 doses of vaccines against Covid-19 as of March 30. Of this figure, 12,018,418 are booster doses.

At least 65,885,048 of the target population are fully inoculated against Covid-19 as of March 30.