PH to get 10M more vaccine doses thru WHO, USAID

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Thursday said the Philippines will receive around 10 million more US-made COVID-19 vaccine doses after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) assisted Manila in talks with manufacturers and donors to augment deliveries.

In his report during President Duterte’s meeting with Cabinet officials, which was aired on state television, Galvez disclosed that the WHO made an official pronouncement for additional COVID-19 vaccine delivery, particularly from US drugmaker Pfizer.

Washington promised “more or less” 4.5 million additional Pfizer vaccines through COVAX, Galvez said.

With the help of the USAID, another American drugmaker Moderna pledged to send this month 5 million vaccine doses, with the first batch expected to arrive on Sunday, he added.

He said the recent official visit of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. to the United States resulted in Moderna promising to send more COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines.

Gratitude

Lorenzana and Locsin spoke with the officials of the US state department and expressed the country’s gratitude for the Unted States’ initial donation of 6 million doses of vaccines through the WHO-led global COVAX vaccine-sharing program.

He recalled that US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires John Law, before leaving the country at the conclusion of his tour of duty, promised an additional vaccine donation for the Philippines.

Galvez said that, so far, a total of 57.5 million doses had been delivered to the country with 39.5 million already administered.

Some 22 million Filipinos have gotten their first dose while a total of 17.3 million have already completed the full dose.

Galvez, who is also the chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said that the Philippines was expecting the full delivery of around 130.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year, more than enough for the 70 percent of the country’s population eligible to be inoculated.