On April 22, 500k Sinovac doses, 20k SputnikV doses set for delivery
(Eagle News) — More than 1.5 million more vaccine doses will be coming before the month ends, according to vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.
The 500,000 additional Sinovac doses will be coming this Thursday, April 22, and another 500,000 Sinovac doses will be delivered on April 29, Galvez told President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday.
Galvez said 20,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines from Russia are also scheduled for delivery on Thursday, April 22. This will be followed by 480,000 doses by the end of the month.
The vaccine czar explained that an earlier delivery of 500,000 doses of Sinovac on April 11 had already been made. This means that for April alone, the total Sinovac doses delivered were 1.5 million.
The first 20,000 doses of Sputnik V is what Galvez called a “mini rollout” since the Philippines will first test how they would fare in handling these vaccines which require a much colder temperature of below 18 degrees Celsius. This is unlike Sinovac and AstraZeneca which only require between 2 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius.
“Yung 20,000 na Gamaleya, Sputnik. Ito po ‘yong tinatawag nating, mini rollout kasi magkaiba po ‘yong component nito at saka negative 18 po ito. So magti-testing po muna tayo, Mr. President,” Galvez explained.
“And then yung 480,000 will be (arriving) at the end of this month,” he said.
-195k Pfizer doses could arrive by end of April, says Galvez-
The official is also optimistic that some 195,000 doses from Pfizer will be arriving before the month ends through the COVAX Facility of the World Health Organization (WHO). The previous condition made for the Pfizer deliveries was the completion of the legalities regarding the indemnification bill.
The bill was already signed into law last February by President Duterte. It covered the creation of a 500 million pesos indemnity fund to cover compensation for potential serious adverse effects stemming from the vaccine doses’ emergency use.
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers would be immune from lawsuits for claims arising from the administration of the shots.
“Pagka matapos po namin ‘yong ano, ‘yong legal ano po ng ano ng Pfizer baka po dumating ang
195,000 po na Pfizer galing po sa COVAX,” Galvez said,
He said that if the bilateral agreements were finalized, there could be an early delivery of 2.4 million Pfizer doses this second quarter.
(Eagle News Service)
