Gov’t bares 2022 vaccine purchase plan

This early, the government is preparing the purchase of additional COVID-19 vaccines for 2022 to avoid a gap in the vaccine rollout that is likely to become an annual health program.

National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said negotiations were underway for 26 million additional doses to become the country’s “transition supply” for 2022.

He said this included the purchase of 6 million doses of the single-shot Janssen, 10 million Novavax and 10 million more Sinovac.

In a statement on Thursday, Galvez said early negotiations with drug companies should prevent a repeat of “what happened in the first quarter of 2021” when the country started off with 2 million China-donated vaccines.

He said the Philippines eventually secured 164 million doses for 2021, enough to vaccinate a big part of the adult population to achieve herd protection by yearend.

Vaccinaton law

Of 164 million doses, only about 29 million doses have so far reached the Philippines.

The NTF has not mentioned vaccinating people younger than 18 years old or giving health workers’ a third shot during the year.

Galvez said the remainder of the 25 million state-bought Sinovac for 2021 will be delivered by August and that local governments must now prepare for storing and distributing to provinces the more sensitive Pfizer, Moderna and Sputnik V doses in the coming months.

But the NTF warned local governments and private companies against making any advance payments to drugmakers without the national government or they risk violating the COVID-19 vaccination law.

In the rollout of Janssen vaccines in Pasig City on Thursday, NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon said the Philippines had so far administered 16 million doses.

The National Capital Region (NCR) has surpassed its daily vaccination rate from 120,000 doses to 150,000 doses.

Dizon said the National COVID-19 Vaccination Operations Center plans to increase NCR’s daily target in light of the Delta variant.

The government aims to administer 500,000 doses a day across the country. INQ