PH seeks 900,000 more Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines from COVAX pool

FILE PHOTO: Vials with a sticker reading, “COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only” and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed Pfizer logo in this illustration taken October 31, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File Photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is seeking to increase to one million the amount of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines it will receive from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Wednesday.

In a televised briefing, Galvez said they are aiming to submit the official request to COVAX facility before Feb. 14.

“Sa ngayon po, gumagawa kami ng sulat kasi nakasaad po sa COVAX arrangement natin na we can have [a] submission [to request] for additional, more than 900,000 to make it one million yung ating vaccines sa Pfizer, gagawin po namin ‘yun,” Galvez said in a televised briefing.

(As of now, we are submitting a request, since it is indicated in our COVAX arrangement that we can submit a request to increase our vaccines from Pfizer to one million. We are already doing that.)

“We are now preparing the letter and we will submit it before February 14,” he added.

Galvez earlier announced that under the COVAX facility, the Philippines will receive 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines within the first quarter of 2021.

Apart from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, the country is also set to receive 5,500,800 to 9,290,400 doses of vaccines developed by British drugmaker AstraZeneca. Galvez said the initial delivery is expected between mid to late February.

The Food and Drug Administration has already cleared both Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use in the country.

EDV