DOH: Bulk of 2 M AstraZeneca vaccine doses to go to ‘NCR Plus’

(REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo)

MANILA, Philippines — The bulk of the recently delivered two million doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by British-Swede drug firm AstraZeneca will go to Metro Manila and four adjacent provinces, otherwise known as the “NCR Plus bubble,” the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government is ready to deploy the vaccines on Monday with the allocations in regions already decided upon.

She said the NCR Plus bubble has the biggest allocation of AstraZeneca vaccines, with about 500,000 doses or about 25% dedicated to Metro Manila.

“Nasa NCR Plus bbuble ‘yung pinakamataas na alokasyon dahil alam natin ‘yung focus natin so that we can be able to have herd containment in this epicenter of this disease,” Vergeire said in an online media forum.

(The NCR Plus bubble has the biggest allocation because we know that it is our focus to achieve herd containment in the epicenter of the disease.)

“So NCR (National Capital Region) gets around 25% of these doses. We have Region 3, we have Region 4-A and then mayroon din tayo sa lahat ng regions natin bibigyan ng mga allocation for these AstraZeneca vaccines,” she added.

An additional two million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in the Philippines at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) on Saturday.

These were from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility, a global initiative aimed at ensuring fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The latest delivery brings the country’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines to over 7.5 million doses.

The Department of Health (DOH) announced on Friday the official resumption of the administration of AstraZenaca’s COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged below 60.

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