DOH: 1.5M vaccine supply so far delivered not enough to cover all medical frontliners
(Eagle News) – The Philippines has vaccinated more than half a million health care workers, or more than 41 percent of the 1.7 million medical frontliners targeted as A1 priority in the country’s vaccine rollout against COVID-19. The rollout started on March 1.
President Rodrigo Duterte stressed the importance of vaccinating all health care workers first before giving shots to other sectors. This is because the current vaccine supply of 1.5 million doses are still not enough to cover the two-dose requirement for vaccination. With 1.7 million medical frontliners in the country, about 3.4 million doses are needed for the two-dose regimen to completely vaccinate health workers.
“Up to this time, there is no bakuna na binili natin na dumating. Wala pa ‘yan. Medyo malayo pa. But next week or hopefully the week after. Basta sana I pray that it would happen within the month of March,” he said in his recent Talk to the Nation on March 24.
-COVAX deliveries could be in peril-
Apart from that vaccinating non-health workers using the AstraZeneca doses donated by COVAX Facility could affect scheduled COVAX deliveries in the country. The Palace says there are still 44 million vaccine doses scheduled to arrive within the year from COVAX.
The vaccines which have so far arrived in the country were the 1 million Sinovac doses donated by China, and the 525,600 AstraZeneca doses that came from the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that as of March 23, there were 508,332 health workers who had already been vaccinated with the use of either Sinovac or AstraZeneca doses. He said that the number is 41.7 percent of the total number of health care workers.
-Current supply, only 30% of needed doses for health workers-
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also reported this to President Duterte on March 24 as he said that so far the total vaccine doses which arrived in the country were still not enough for all health care workers.
The total vaccine doses – at 1,525,600 – currently in the country comprise only around 30 percent of the needed two doses of vaccines for health care workers. He said that this is why it was very important to follow the vaccination priority list set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Philippine government.
“Iyan po eh ‘yong total na dumating is only about 30 percent of our requirement for the 1.7 million healthcare workers. Eh times two pa ‘yon, Mr. President, 3.4 million ang kailangan natin na doses. So kulang na kulang talaga ‘yong bakuna sa ngayon, Mr. President,” Duque said.
“So kailangan po talagang sundin ‘yong atin pong priority listing na inyo pong binasa, Mr. President, para maging maayos po ang ating bakunahan program,” he noted.
President Duterte has directed the Department of Health to probe the incidents where non-health workers had been given COVID-19 shots, contrary to the conditions set by WHO and the government for its vaccine rollout.
He stressed that these incidents could put in peril the future vaccine deliveries from COVAX Facility.
“It is wrong! Iyan po talaga ang sinabi ni Presidente, ‘It is wrong.’ At baka nga mawala iyong 44 million nating libre na dosages na manggagaling sa COVAX Facility kung hindi masusunod iyong priority. Pero naging mayor din po ang Presidente, naiintindihan niya na… kaya sabi niya grey area,” his spokesperson Roque said on Thursday, March 25.
Duterte had earlier directed that all the 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines donated by WHO and COVAX Facility should be used as the first dose only for health care workers to further expand the coverage of the country’s vaccine roll-out.
Sinovac donations from China that have already been delivered in the country has reached 1 million. The second dose for SInovac is to given 28 days after the first dose.
On the other hand, the second dose of the AstraZeneca shots is to be given 12 weeks after the first dose. AstraZeneca doses have a shelf life of 3 months only.
Both Sinovac and AstraZeneca can be kept in temperatures of between 2 degrees and 8 degrees Celsius, considered ordinary refrigerator temperatures.
The COVAX Facility had specifically set its conditions that all the vaccines it has delivered to the country should only be used for health workers. Failure to do so would invailidate the COVAX Facility agreement with the Philippines.
(Eagle News Service)
