The national government received Sunday afternoon, August 8, the third tranche of the Moderna vaccine that it procured through a tripartite agreement with the private sector represented by the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) and owned by ports mogul Enrique Razon Jr.
The shipment containing 326,400 doses of Moderna arrived at Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City at 3:38 p.m. via Singapore Airlines flight SQ912.
The arrival of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines was witnessed by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.; Raymond Azurin, Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs of Zuellig Pharma Corp., Department of Health (DOH) Director Ariel Valencia; and Bureau of Customs (BOC) District Collector Carmelita Talusan.
According to Galvez 224,400 doses will go to the government while 102,000 doses will be alloted to the ICTSI for the inoculation of its employees and other economic frontliners from its partner establishments.
"Ang bibigyan nito ay ang areas na mayroong surge dito sa Metro Manila considering na ang Moderna nakita natin limited lang ang volumes ngayon. Ang concentration to fight the variant will be in NCR and other surge areas (We will distribute it in areas experiencing a surge here in Metro Manila considering that we have a limited volume of Moderna. The concentration to fight the variant will be in the National Capital Region and other surge areas)," Galvez said.
The remaining unvaccinated medical frontliners (A1), senior citizens (A3), and persons with comorbidities (A3) will be the priority groups of the newly delivered vaccines.
In Metro Manila, which is currently under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), Galvez said 90,000 doses of Moderna will be allocated to reach the target four million allocated jabs to ramp up the inoculation program during the lockdown from August 6 to 20.
"Once we receive two doses, it has a tremendous effect on the variants. Even on the Delta variant, it prevents severe and critical cases, and even death. Malaki ang impact ng vaccination natin (Our vaccination has a bug impact). It really saves lives and the vaccines can beat all the variants," Galvez stressed.
The government sealed 20 million doses of COVId-19 vaccine from the American manufacturer, Moderna. Of these, 13 million were procured by the government while seven million were bought by the private sector.
The first tranche containing 249,400 doses of the procured Moderna was transported last June 27 while the second tranche with 250,800 doses arrived last July 15.
Meanwhile, the United States government donated more than three million doses of Moderna through the global vaccine initiative COVAX on August 3.
With the latest delivery, the vaccine supply increased to 38,602,200 doses, including 3,826,860 Moderna.
Other brands include 20.5 million Sinovac; 7,273,940 doses of AstraZeneca; 3,410,550 doses of Pfizer; 3,240,850 doses of Johnson & Johnson; and 350,000 Sputnik V.