Carlito Galvez Jr.
MANILA, Philippines — The National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) on Tuesday urged local governments to administer the 5.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that they now have as the second shot in order to raise the number of people who are fully vaccinated following another delay in vaccine shipments to the country.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., NTF chief implementer, said he wanted to close the gap between the number of people who had received their first shot and those who had completed the two doses, or those considered fully vaccinated.
The 5.7 million shots have been distributed to local vaccination hubs but remained unused, according to the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC).
About 5.4 million doses were intended as the second jab for those who had received their first shot in June, the NVOC said.
But Galvez said he wanted all the vaccines, particularly those made by Sinovac, to be administered as the second dose while waiting for the arrival of another shipment of the China-made vaccine later this month.
The second dose of the Sinovac vaccine is supposed to be given 28 days after the first. “We are seeing a disparity in our national vaccination report wherein out of the 11 million jabs administered, only 2.8 million (people) were fully vaccinated.
This should be addressed by our implementing units,” Galvez said in a statement on Tuesday.
The government is aiming to fully inoculate 50 million to 70 million Filipinos by the end of this year. Vince Dizon, NTF deputy chief implementer, said the delivery of the Sinovac vaccine scheduled for early this month had been moved to July 18. The last Sinovac delivery was on June 28, when one million doses arrived in the country.
According to Dizon, the delay in the Sinovac delivery could be attributed to the scarcity in the global supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
He noted that there was a high demand for vaccines, especially in wealthy countries. “Sadly, the bulk of the supply goes to wealthier countries, and countries that are not that wealthy, like the Philippines, face delays in getting their supply. That is the reality,” he said.
The government expects 5.5 million Sinovac doses to be delivered this month, he said.
Suspended
The second dose “is very important in providing protection against COVID-19 and the different variants,” Dizon said in a press briefing.
In Metro Manila, only 1.2 million people had so far completed the two doses out of 4.8 million who had received their jabs. Several Metro Manila cities have announced a temporary suspension of vaccinations because they ran out of supply.
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said theirs was nearly used up. In Pasig City, Mayor Vico Sotto said on Tuesday the 11,000 remaining shots that his city still had may not be enough to inoculate its economic front-liners.
“We may be able to administer all 11,000 doses within the next few days, but we are expecting to receive more supply from the national government,” Sotto said during a televised public briefing.
Pasig is now able to vaccinate 7,000 people daily, compared to the 5,800 doses in previous months, he said. Sotto explained that his city may be able to administer more vaccines through its partnerships with private institutions, depending on supply coming from the national government.
‘Slippages’
Galvez said the “slippages” concerned the delivery of around 6 million Sinovac shots to Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao, and to the provinces of Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga and Rizal.
He said the Chinese manufacturer had just informed the government that the shipment for early July was moved to the third week of the month. “With this development, we advise all (local governments that still) have Sinovac vaccines in their inventory to ensure that the allocation for the second dose should be used as second dose,” Galvez said.
“Refrain from using as first dose the Sinovac [shots] that are intended as second dose to ensure people’s full protection,” he said.
Galvez appealed for patience and understanding over the delay. He urged local governments to administer the first dose of the remaining vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer and Gamaleya.
The NTF said the delivery of the 170,000 shots of Gamaleya’s Sputnik V vaccine was also postponed from last month to July 7. The Philippines expects the arrival of donated vaccines within the first half of July, including one million AstraZeneca shots from the Japanese government.
It will receive another two million AstraZeneca jabs from the COVAX facility and three million of the single-dose Janssen vaccine from the United States, through COVAX. The NTF said the initial batches of the government-purchased Pfizer vaccine will arrive on July 19 (562,770) and on July 26 (375,570).