MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is in talks with different countries and organizations for the Philippines’ planned donation of vaccines to other nations, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
“Tayo po ang nagkakaroon ng pakikipagusap sa mga iba’t ibang mga bansa at iba’t ibang mga organisasyon kung saan the Philippines is planning to donate vaccines also to other countries para makatulong din po tayo sa kanila,” Vergeire said during Friday’s Palace briefing.
(We have been holding talks with different countries and organizations to talk about the Philippines planning to donate vaccines also to other countries so we can help.)
READ: PH to donate COVID jabs to vaccine-short nations
Before this, Vergeire said a team from the DOH has been checking the country’s inventory of COVID-19 vaccines since early March to see how many jabs the Philippines have on hand.
“Tayo po ay nakapagsulat na at naaprubahan na rin po ang marami ng ating Food and Drug Administration sa extension po ng expiry ng ating mga bakuna meron tayo ngayon sa ating bansa,” she also said.
(We have also written requests to the Food and Drug Administration, many of them have been approved, for the extension of expiration of the vaccines we have in the country.)
So far, the government has fully vaccinated over 65 million individuals, or 72.81 percent of the country’s target population of over 90 million.
Meanwhile, 11.7 million Filipinos have received their booster shots.
For the pediatric vaccination, 738,143 children aged 5 to 11 have been fully vaccinated, according to Malacañang. Over 8.89 million 12 to 17-year-olds have also completed their primary vaccination.
READ: Arrival of 1M Covid-19 vaccines to formally start PH inoculation rollout — Galvez
The Philippine government relied on the vaccine donation from China when it first launched the COVID-19 vaccination in March last year.
READ: PGH director is PH’s first Covid-19 vaccine recipient
Vaccine donations to the Philippines have been pouring in from different countries since its COVID-19 vaccination rollout began.