"We are 100 percent ready."
Malacañang said that the government is ready to start its vaccination program against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as the first batch of vaccines from the COVAX facility is set to arrive in the country next week.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in his Monday presser that while there was no exact date yet when the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines will arrive, the Philippines is already ready to commence the vaccination.
"Sa ngayon po walang exact date pero (For now there is no exact date but) even now we are 100 percent ready to start the vaccination campaign," he said.
Roque said that the COVAX Facility led by the World Health Organization (WHO) committed to delivering the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines by mid-February.
"Ang sabi po ng COVAX Facility sa kanilang liham (The COVAX Facility said in its letter that), it will be made available, it will come to us by mid-February," he said.
"We expect na mabibigyan po tayo ng notice... siguro mga two to three days bago isakay 'yan sa eroplano para tayo naman po ay makapaghanda sa pagsundo sa airport (We expect that they will give us notice two to three days before they load the vaccines in the airplane so we can prepare for fetching them at the airport)," he added.
Roque said last week that the Philippines is set to receive 117,000 doses of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech from the COVAX Facility.
The government's vaccination program prioritizes frontline workers in health facilities both national and local, private and public, health professionals and non-professionals like students, nursing aides, janitors, barangay health workers, among others.
According to Roque, the first tranche of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is allocated for healthcare workers in the following:
· All the COVID-19 dedicated hospitals
· COVID-19 referral hospitals
· Department of Health (DOH)-owned hospitals
· Local government unit hospitals
· Hospitals for uniformed services/personnel
· Private hospitals
The Philippines will receive 9,407,400 doses from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca during the first and second quarters of the year from the COVAX Facility.