A SHIPMENT of 500,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccines arrived yesterday, bringing the country’s supply to at least 4 million doses.
Yesterday’s shipment is the last batch for this month from the 1.5 million doses bought by government from the private Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech.
The country has received 3.5 million Sinovac doses, including one million doses donated by China, since late February.
The Philippines is expecting the delivery of another two million doses of procured Sinovac vaccines next month. The Philippines bought a total of 25 million doses from Sinovac, which will be delivered in batches monthly.
Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and concurrent vaccine czar, said the latest shipment will be distributed to with high numbers of infection.
The CoronaVac vaccines arrived on a Cebu Pacific plane at 7:35 a.m.
Galvez also said the initial batch of 15,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine from Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute is expected to be delivered to the country on May 1.
The delivery date has been moved twice due to logistical challenges. Lack of direct flights between Manila and Moscow and current travel restrictions caused the delay, Galvez said.
He said the remaining 485,000 Sputnik doses will be delivered next month along with the other two million doses originally due in May.
The Philippines is buying 20 million doses of vaccines from Gamaleya, with the first 10 million to be delivered in four tranches.
On reports that Brazil has stopped the use and delivery of Sputnik V in their country due to adverse effects, Galvez said the Philippines would rely on “cleared journals” and the decision of the vaccine experts panel and the Food and Drug Administration, instead of news or social media reports.
Galvez also said the Philippines is set to receive some 2.355 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer BioNTech via the World Health Organization-backed COVAX Facility “not later in June.”
He said COVAX and the Gavi vaccine alliance sent the Philippines a letter stating that the 2,355,210 doses of Pfizer vaccines, which includes the 117,000 doses that were supposed to be delivered in February, will be delivered not later than June.
The Philippines is set to receive 44 million doses of vaccines under the COVAX Facility arrangement — a donation of 33 million doses and 11 million doses paid by the Philippines for $100,000.
Galvez said the Philippines is also arranging the purchase or use of excess AstraZeneca vaccines, with Israel and the United States.
Galvez said the bulk of the government bought vaccines are due for delivery in June such as those from Moderna (194000 doses), Sinovac (4.5 million), Sputnik V (2 million), and private sector-bought AstraZeneca (1.3 million). He said some the 2.4 million doses of Pfizer vaccines under COVAX are also expected in June.
He said the government aims to vaccinate those in the A4 (essential workers) and A5 (indigent) starting June.
Galvez said the vaccination of the rest of the population will start in August when 15 million to 20 million doses of vaccines from different firms are expected to be delivered. A similar number of doses is expected to be delivered until December.
The government targets to procure abut 148 million vaccine doses to immunize 50 million to 70 million Filipinos.
Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes (PL, Senior Citizens) asked Metro Manila mayors to conduct house-to-house vaccinations of senior citizens and persons with disabilities who cannot leave their homes.
Ordanes, who wrote the mayors last Tuesday, said that for now, the house-to-house vaccination “can be done on a targeted basis by concentrating efforts of specific areas where the spread has been high or quite difficult.”
“The house-to-house vaccination for PWDs and seniors at least 70 years old (that) I have asked the Metro Manila mayors to do does not necessarily have to happen now on a large scale. Conditions and variables at present are not conducive for proper large-scale implementation of the house-to-house vaccination,” he said.
Since the COVID spread is like a major fire, the lawmaker said “some firefighting tactics would be useful.” He said the LGUs should “target the larger clusters and create a firewall and isolate and contain specific areas.”
“It cannot be denied that house-to-house vaccination must be done. The LGUs (local government units) just have to allocate some ample resources to make it happen on a targeted basis,” he also said.
Ordanes also said he is aware that aside from vaccine supply, the mayors also have to consider cold storage, logistics, security, and crowd control–factors which get difficult to do when done large scale.
He, however, said it would be wise to prepare for it now before the main bulk of the vaccine shipments arrive later this year. — With Wendell Vigilia
