The national government is poised to receive 2,379,200 doses of anti-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines this week as efforts to vaccinate more healthcare workers are strengthened amid an alarming surge of new infections.
According to Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Resolution No. 104 released on Sunday, March 21, the country is expecting a total of 1.4 million CoronaVac vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech which will be delivered from March 23 to 24.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, said the AstraZeneca vaccines are part of the second tranche of the vaccine supply that was secured by the government from the World Health Organization (WHO)-led Covax facility.
"We were already given a warning order by the Covax facility and the World Health Organization that a total of 979,200 AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive this coming March 22," Galvez had said last March 15.
The Manila Bulletin on Sunday, March 22, sought Galvez for an update if the scheduled delivery will push through but he has yet to respond as of this writing.
However, he bared last week that if the delivery encounters a delay -- just like what happened on the first tranche -- then it "might be moved to the first week of April."
It can be recalled that the delivery of the first tranche of the vaccines secured by the government from the Covax facility was delayed. The original date of delivery of 525,600 AstraZeneca vaccines was on March 1, just in time for the initial rollout of the country's vaccination program, but only 487,200 doses arrived on March 4.
Galvez explained that the delay was due to the "global shortage" in the supply of vaccines as "rich countries" already secured 80 percent of the available supply. The remaining 38,400 doses from the first tranche were delivered on March 7.
Meanwhile, a total of 1.4 million CoronaVac vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech are also set for delivery within the week.
Galvez said that 400,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccines were donated by the Chinese government to the country, making it the second time that Beijing gave free anti-COVID-19 vaccines to Manila.
"The 400,000 doses donated by the Chinese government will be delivered on March 24," Galvez had said on March 17.
Once delivered, the total vaccine donations of China to the Philippines will reach one million after it delivered 600,000 doses of donated CoronaVac vaccines last February 28.
On the other hand, the government procured another one million doses of CoronaVac vaccines from Sinovac Biotech through the Department of Health (DOH). The shipment was originally scheduled on March 28 but it has since been moved to March 29.
"Mayroon po tayo na one million po na Sinovac na galing po sa procurement po natin na darating naman po iyan March 29. Na-adjust po ng konti (We have one million from Sinovac which came from our procurement, and it will arrive on March 29. It was slightly adjusted)," Galvez said on March 19.
Meanwhile, the delivery of 979,200 vials from British-Swede drugmaker AstraZeneca is now expected to take place from March 29 to April 2, the resolution showed.
Galvez had said that the AstraZeneca vaccines are part of the second tranche of the vaccine supply that was secured by the government from the World Health Organization (WHO)-led Covax facility.
The original delivery date for the AstraZeneca vaccines was on March 22. The NTF has yet to issue an explanation why the delivery was delayed by one week.
At present, the country has received 1,125,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac and Astrazeneca.
These vaccines were used in the rollout of the vaccination program on March 1 as the government aims to inoculate 70 million Filipinos by the end of 2021.
The vaccination of 1.7 million healthcare workers was prioritized in the inoculation program to ensure the protection of the country's healthcare system as the number of new infections continues to rise.
On Saturday, the Department of Health recorded a record-high 7,999 new cases, the country's highest single-day tally since the start of the pandemic last year.
Before the year ends, the government wants to achieve herd immunity, a form of indirect protection when a sufficient percentage of the population becomes immune to an infectious disease.
By 2022, the government is eyeing to eliminate COVID-19 by working with international vaccine manufacturers for the development of a second generation of vaccines that would completely make a person immune from the coronavirus.