DOH: 40% of newly delivered Pfizer vaccines to go to NCR Plus 8

MANILA, Philippines — Forty percent of the 2.2 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines that recently arrived in the country will be distributed to the NCR Plus 8, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said distribution for the Pfizer vaccines that arrived last Thursday has already started.

“Itong Pfizer ay naumpisahan na ang pagdidistribute. Sa allocations, according to Secretary [Carlito] Galvez, 60 percent will be provided to those regions na talagang may high burden of cases ngayon based on our prioritization framework, and the 40 percent would still be provided to NCR Plus 8 areas,” she told an online press briefing.

(Distribution for Pfizer vaccines has started. According to Secretary Galvez, 60 percent will be provided to regions with a high burden of cases based on the prioritization framework, and the 40 percent would be provided to the NCR Plus 8 areas.)

The NCR Plus 8 covers Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal. The government is aiming to reach population protection in these areas by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the one million doses of CoronaVac from Sinovac Biotech that also arrived last Thursday have yet to be distributed to the regions due to insufficient documents.

Vergeire said the manufacturer of the vaccine has yet to submit a certificate of analysis for the vaccines.

“We cannot distribute or transport these vaccines to specific regions at local government kung hindi kumpleto ang dokumento namin (if our documents are not complete),” she said.

As of June 13, a total of 9.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in the country, including 6.8 million doses that have been administered.

JE