Around six million doses of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines will be delivered to the country this week as the government seeks to bounce back from the decelerated inoculation program in the past two weeks.
"All in all po, Mr. Mayor , more or less mayroon po tayong six million na darating po ngayong linggo (All in all, Mr. Mayor, we will be receiving more or less six million this week)," Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, disclosed Monday night, Aug. 16.
Included in the scheduled deliveries are four million doses of Sinovac, around 400,000 to 500,000 doses of Moderna, and 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca which were all procured by the government and private sector.
Further, one million doses of Sinopharm, which will be donated by the Chinese government, will also be transported this week.
Deliveries
The Sinovac delivery will be divided into two shipments, according to Galvez, with two million doses each arriving on Aug. 19 and 20.
Meanwhile, the donated Sinopharm jabs will arrive on Aug. 21.
"Baka po ang gagawin po ng ating flag carrier ay pagsasamahin na po ang Sinovac at saka ang Sinopharm para isang haul na lang po. Magiging five million in two days (Maybe our flag carrier will deliver the Sinovac and Sinopharm in one haul. We will have five million in two days)," Galvez said. Both Sinovac and Sinopharm are made by China-based vaccine manufacturers.
"Nagpapasalamat po tayo sa China na hindi po tayo nila kinakalimutan. Katulad ng sinabi niyo po, magpapadala po ulit sila ng isang milyon na donation (We thank China because they never really forget us. Like what you said, they will again send one million doses as donation)," he added.
Also on Aug. 20, the AstraZeneca delivery will arrive as scheduled.
These vaccines are the remaining half of the supplies that were procured by the government and private sector, represented by the Go Negosyo Foundation, through the "Dose of Hope" program. The first half of the shipment, composed of 575,800 doses, were delivered last Aug 13.
On the other hand, the exact date for the arrival of the Moderna jabs has yet to be finalized.
Galvez said the NTF has appealed to the United States Embassy to fast track the delivery of the procured Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson (J&J) jabs.
Around eight million doses of these vaccines were scheduled for delivery in the fourth week of August.
"Humingi po kami ng tulong na kung puwede pong ma-advance delivery po ang mga produkto pong ito dahil kung mai-advance po ‘yan, malaki pong tulong po sa atin para ma-accelerate po ang ating bakunahan (We asked for help if they can advance the delivery of these products because if they can, it will be a big help for us to accelerate our vaccination program)," Galvez said.
The vaccination program slowed down in the first two weeks of the month due to the re-imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and other areas, and the continuing surge of cases.
As of Aug. 15, the country has received a total of 42,575,350 doses from various manufacturers.
Of these, the government has administered 27.80 million doses nationwide. A total of 15.24 million Filipinos have received their first dose while 12.56 million have been fully vaccinated.