(Eagle News) – The Philippine will be getting almost a million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines by March 22 at the earliest or early April at the latest, according to vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez.
Galvez reported to President Rodrigo Duterte that an additional 1.4 million doses of Sinovac vaccines from China will be arriving in the country this month.
In total, the expected vaccines to be coming in would be 2.3 million doses, he said.
During Monday night’s Talk to the Nation of President Duterte, Galvez reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) had sent word that some 979,200 AstraZeneca vaccines will be arriving by March 22.
China, on the other hand, will be donating an additional 400,000 to complete the promised 1 million doses of the Chinese government. China had earlier donated 600,000 doses of Sinovac which arrived on Feb. 28. The vaccination rollout started the day after, on March 1.
“And then also we are working on the procurement through DOH, the 1 million (doses of) Sinovac,” he said.
“And we have an information from WHO that we might be receiving almost a million of AstraZeneca also within this month or maybe early April with 979,200 AstraZeneca. With a total of 2,379,200 doses by March or early April po,” Galvez reported.
President Duterte said that vaccinating more people is essential in beating the virus which already exhibited mutations that led to spike in cases worldwide, including in the Philippines.
The three COVID-19 virus variants – the UK variant (B.1.1.7), the South African variant (B.1351), and the Brazilian variant P.1 – were already detected in the country. Another variant, P.3, which was first detected in the Philippines, particularly in Central Visayas, has also been found in at least 98 cases of COVID-19, according to the Department of Health.
Duterte earlier said that he will only consider opening up the economy further if there is already a stockpile of at least 2 million vaccine doses against COVID-19 in the country.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that the 600,000 doses of Sinovac which earlier arrived in the country have been already allocated for the two doses required for complete vaccination primarily targeted for health workers’ use. He said that since there is just a 28-day gap between the first and second dose, the Sinovac vaccines which are already in the country had already been
(Eagle News Service)
