The government is on track to meet its acquisition target of 170 million doses of coronavirus vaccines following the commitments secured from various suppliers abroad, Malacañang announced Tuesday.
Citing a report from vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the government has made enough vaccine orders to inoculate around 70 million Filipino adults this year.
The bulk of the country's forthcoming supplies will be sourced from COVAX facility, a global vaccine acquisition scheme, at 44 million doses.
The country's other vaccine sources include Sinovac, Gamaleya, Novavax, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson.
The government plans to begin the vaccination drive this month when the initial supplies are expected to start arriving.
"Makukumpleto natin ang kinakailangan nating mga bakuna para sa ating vaccination program. Ito ay base sa supply at demand ng mga bakuna. Sang-ayon kay Secretary Galvez, 'yung ating target na 170 (million) na mga bakuna ay makukuha natin (We can complete the vaccines needed for our vaccination program. This is based on the vaccine supply and demand. According to Secretary Galvez, we can achieve our target of 170 million vaccines)," Roque said.
"We already have enough doses in the pipeline to potentially vaccinate all 70 million adult Filipinos by the end of the year," he added.
According to Roque, the country's vaccine supplies include 44 million doses from World Health Organization-backed global vaccine scheme.
Around 5.6 million to 9 million AstraZeneca and Pfizer doses of vaccines are expected to arrive in the first half of the year while the rest of the supplies will be delivered by end of the year.
Roque admitted that the delivery of the vaccines has been delayed but the Palace remained hopeful the initial supply of 117,000 Pfizer vaccines will still arrive this month.
Apart from the vaccines under COVAX facility, the government has secured 25 million doses of vaccines from Chinese drugmaker Sinovac. The initial batch of the vaccine supply will be delivered this month.
Another 10 million to 15 million vaccines secured by the government from Russia's Gamaleya National Center are also expected to arrive in the country starting April.
The government also secured 30 million doses for vaccines from Novavax, which will arrive starting May.
An additional 17 million doses of vaccines developed by AstraZeneca will also start arriving in the country this May.
The government likewise secured 20 million doses of vaccines made by US-based Moderna. The delivery of the supplies will start this July.
Roque also noted that the government is also negotiating for a supply of 15 million of Pfizer vaccines. The government hopes the supplies will be delivered by August this year.
Around 5 million single-shot jabs from Johnson and Johnson have also been negotiated by the government. The country is expected to start receiving the J&J vaccine supply this October.
Roque said it was not true that the country was trailing behind in the vaccination rollout. He said only a few countries, including the United States, China, and United Kingdom and India, have started their immunization drive.
These countries, he noted, are known headquarters of the world's vaccine makers.