The national government has purchased an additional 10 million doses of Sinovac from China to "ensure a steady supply" of vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the country's vaccine czar bared Tuesday night, Aug. 24.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, said the purchase order has been signed after the utilization of 26 million doses of Sinovac that were bought by the government for 2021.
"Para po talaga ensure na steady ang supply, ang ginawa po natin, ‘yong ating negotiating team, nag-sign po ng purchase order for additional 10 million doses of Sinovac dahil kasi ‘yung Sinovac po natin na 26 million naubos na po iyon (To ensure a steady supply, our negotiating team signed the purchase order for an additional 10 million doses of Sinovac because the 26 million have already been utilized)," Galvez said in a Cabinet meeting presided by President Duterte.
Individual monitoring by the Manila Bulletin using data from the NTF showed that a total of 26.5 million doses of Sinovac have already been delivered to the country as of Aug. 21.
Of this, 25.5 million doses were procured by the government which means there should be 500,000 doses remaining to be delivered from the original 26 million vaccine purchase. Meanwhile, one million doses were donated by the Chinese government to the country.
Galvez said the new Sinovac purchase will be paid at a lower price compared to its original price. He did not specify the amounts involved in the new purchase.
"Mababa po ang presyo kaysa sa original price niya so ang nakikita po natin ay talagang medyo gumaganda po ang ano po natin ngayon sa Sinovac, maganda po ang supply niya, steady (Its price is lower compared to the original price so we really have a steady supply of Sinovac)," he stated.
Meanwhile, the NTF chief disclosed that more than five million doses of Pfizer and three to four million doses of Moderna will be delivered to the country for the month of September.
"Ang window nila sa September ay makapagbibigay sila ng more or less 5,020,000 na Pfizer this coming September and we are negotiating with Moderna na makapagbigay sila ng more or less three to four million (Their window is that they will be able to supply more or less 5,020,000 Pfizer this September and we are negotiating with Moderna for more or less three to four million)," Galvez said.
The country has a cumulative vaccine supply of 48,522,890 doses, of which 30,693,019 doses have already been administered nationwide.
A total of 17,495,330 Filipinos have received their first dose while 13,197,689 others have been fully vaccinated.
The fully vaccinated individuals represent 17.11 percent of the 77,139,058 eligible population that the government intends to vaccinate by the end of 2021 to achieve herd immunity, Galvez said.