Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III led the inspection of the Sinovac vaccines that arrived on June 6, 2021.
MANILA, Philippines — Some 3.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in the Philippines on Thursday, June 10, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said.
One million of which will be from China’s Sinovac BioTech vaccines, CoronaVac, which will be intended for the A4 priority group of the government’s vaccination program.
Meanwhile, 2.2 million will be US-made Pfizer vaccines from COVAX facility, Galvez said.
He apologized to local government units (LGU) for the lack of vaccine supply, pointing out that the delivery of three million vaccine doses was slightly delayed due to logistical challenges.
“Ako ay humihingi ng mga pasensya sa LGUs dahil talagang medyo na-delay ‘yung three million na intended for the A4 for June dahil nagkaroon tayo ng logistical challenges,” he said in an interview over ABS CBN’s TeleRadyo.
(I ask for the patience of LGUs because the 3 million doses intended for A4 priority group was delayed.)
“Supposed to be, may seven million doses tayo noong May pero ang nakuha lang ay 4.5 million. ‘Yung three million na ‘yan ay mapupuno this coming June, so na-delay lang ng two weeks,” he added.
(We were supposed to get seven million doses in May but we only got 4.5 million. The remaining three million will come in June, so it has been delayed for only two weeks.)
The Antipolo city government earlier reported that it had to halt its COVID-19 vaccinations due to the lack of vaccine supply.
“Bukod sa A1, A2 at A3, MALAPIT NA din daw payagan ang A4 simulan … pero wala namang bakunang dumarating,” the government said in a Facebook post on June 6.