THE country will have a steady supply of COVID-19 vaccines for the rest of the year as national government has “secured” some 164 million doses through procurement, according to the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19.
Of the total secured jabs, about 28.5 million doses have been delivered, the NTF said.
“We are now awaiting the delivery of 136.1 million additional doses. On track in our vaccination program implementation, we are looking forward to having a better Christmas this year,” said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, NTC chairman, during a pre-SONA briefing on Wednesday.
The government is targeting to vaccinate 50 million to 70 million Filipinos this year. All of the vaccines that have arrived in the country, except for that made by Johnson & Johnson, are given in two doses.
The delivered vaccines are composed of 16 million doses procured by the national government, 2.2 million doses purchased by the private sector and local government units, 10.2 million doses donated by the COVAX Facility, and 2.1 million doses donated by other countries.
The national vaccination program started on March 1. The government has administered about 15.9 million doses, including some 5.2 million second doses,
NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the secured supply is composed of 26 million doses of Sinovac, 40 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, 13 million doses of Moderna, and 10 million doses of Sputnik.
“Though we have the 164 million secured supply this year, we are still negotiating for 26 million doses more for transition to 2022,” Galvez added.
He said the 26 million doses under negotiation include 10 million doses of Sinovac, 10 million from Novavax, and six million doses from Johnson & Johnson.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said 1 million doses of Sinovac vaccines are expected to arrive in the country today.
