The Philippines has enough supply of vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for its healthcare workers, an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday, April 17.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the are around 1.8 million medical workers in the country, and there is enough vaccines to inoculate them.
“Pag pinag-usapan po yung priority sector natin na healthcare workers, we have enough. Actually, sila nga po 'yung inuna natin and we have enough vaccines for them (When we talk about our priority sector of healthcare workers, we have enough. Actually, we prioritized them and we have enough vaccines for them),” Vergeire said during a public briefing.
However, the health official noted that some of the medical frontliners are yet to sign up for the vaccination as there are still those who hesitate to get the vaccine.
As for other sectors and the rest of the population, Vergeire said that the immunization will be done in batches.
Meanwhile, Vergeire said the country is currently negotiating to secure additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
But she noted that the commitment on how many vaccines will be allocated for the country will still depend on the global supply.
“So kailangan lang po nating antayin para mabigyan natin ng bakuna ang mga kababayan natin (So we just have to wait so that we could vaccinate our fellow Filipinos),” Vergeire said.
She added that the vaccines ordered by private firms and local government units under their respective tripartite agreements with the vaccine manufactures may start to arrive in the country by June.
Latest government data showed that 3,025,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have already been delivered to the country.
Of the number, a total of 1,255,716 doses were already administered in different vaccination sites across the country.