COVAX will have final say on when first batch of vaccine will arrive — Palace

After announcing the scheduled arrival of coronavirus vaccine next week, Malacanang is now leaving the decision to the organizers of the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility when it will be shipped to the Philippines.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque appeared to have backtracked on his recent statement that the initial batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility is set to arrive by mid-February.

“It’s really a COVAX decision,” he said at a press briefing. “Before we went on the air as I told you meron po tayong tinawagan at tama iyong suspetsa ko (we called someone and my suspicision is correct).”

Roque noted the government has yet to be informed by COVAX on the exact date of the vaccines’ delivery.

“But we would know that when it is shipped because obviously it’s needed to be picked up here in the Philippines. It will be sent by plane,” he said.

The spokesperson was asked about the vaccine arrival as the government conducted on the same day a simulation exercise for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

The initial shipment from the COVAX facility would be 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which would require subzero temperatures for storage.

The simulation started from the vaccine’s arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City. It was then loaded into a vehicle and transported to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) warehouse for storage.

Upon arrival at the RITM, a team received the vaccines and inspected them.

The first batch of vaccines is allotted for personnel of COVID-19 referral hospitals such as the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila and Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City.