(Eagle News) – Some 502,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses, procured through a public-private partnership, arrived in the country on Friday, September 10.
The country is expecting to receive an additional half a million AstraZeneca doses next week.
The vaccines were procured by local government units and the private sector through the “A Dose of Hope” initiative spearheaded by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder Joey Concepcion, according to the National Task Force against COVID-19.
It was delivered via a China Airlines flight.
NTF against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., said 80 percent of the delivered vaccines will go to local government units.
Josephine Romero, A Dose of Hope project lead adviser, said the private sector is closely collaborating with LGUs to ensure the timely distribution of the vaccines.
“Kung ang second dose namin ay sa October pa, ‘yung mga available na bakuna ngayon [ay] pinapahiram talaga namin sa LGUs para walang nakaupong bakuna sa warehouse,” Romero said.
Galvez said the national government, private sector and LGUs have initially agreed to procure 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for 2022.
A total of 2,811,100 AstraZeneca doses secured through tripartite agreements have already been delivered to the Philippines.
To date, the country has received a total of 53,294,130 COVID-19 vaccine doses from different manufacturers. The NTF said.
(Eagle News Service)
