The city governments of Muntinlupa and Taguig received on Monday the 6,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V Gam-COVID-Vac vaccine for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The initial batch of 15,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine arrived in the country on May 1 and the Department of Health (DOH) gave 3,000 doses each to Muntinlupa, Taguig, Manila, Makati, and Parañaque.
In Muntinlupa, the city-run Ospital ng Muntinlupa and the Asian Hospital and Medical Center, both in Alabang, received 1,500 doses each. The vaccines are stored at Asian Hospital, which has the cold storage facility as the vaccine needs to be kept at a temperature of -18 Celsius.
Dr. Juancho Bunyi, chief of the Muntinlupa City Health Office (CHO), said the Sputnik V vaccines will be used starting Wednesday on priority groups A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities).
As of May 1, the Muntinlupa City government has administered the first dose of the vaccine to 24,163 consisting of 5,123 health workers (A1), 5,400 senior citizens (A2), and 13,637 persons with comorbidities (A3).
Of the total, 19,991 received the Sinovac Life Science’s CoronaVac vaccine and 4,172 the AstraZeneca brand.
A total of 843 persons--417 health workers and 426 at the hospital--have received their second dose.
In Taguig, the 3,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines are stored at the Orca Cold Storage Solutions facility.
The DOH chose Taguig’s Lakeshore Mega Vaccination Hub as recipient of the Russia-made vaccine.
As of May 2, the city government has vaccinated 36,196 individuals in the A1, A2 and A3 categories.
The country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for Sputnik V last March 19.
Sputnik V has been approved for use in 64 countries including the Philippines, Hungary, Laos, Vietnam, Turkey, and Myanmar.