Pinoys prioritized: US to share excess COVID jabs first to countries like PH, Galvez told
The Philippines will be among the "priorities" of the United States (US) government in its planned distribution of some 80 million doses of surplus coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines in their inventory, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. revealed on Monday night, May 31.

Galvez, vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, said the information was confirmed to him via phone call by Philippine Ambassador to US Jose Manuel Romualdez.
"Ambassador Romualdez called me and said that the US has decided to share 80 million doses and they have given an assurance that the Philippines is one of the top priorities in the distribution," Galvez told President Duterte during the latter's weekly public address.
Galvez expressed gratitude to the US government and to Romualdez for facilitating the inclusion of the Philippines in the US' priority beneficiaries.
Last Friday, Romualdez said the sharing of excess vaccines to other countries was part of US President Joe Biden's commitment to help eradicate the global threat of COVID-19.
The donations are composed of 60 million doses of Biritish-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccines and 20 million doses of US-manufactured Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson jabs.
However, the exact number of vaccines that will be alloted to the Philippines has yet to be revealed by Galvez.
The US is the second leading country in terms of administering COVID-19 vaccines.
According to global tracker "Our World in Data," a total of 293.71 million COVID-19 shots were already given by the US to its citizens as of May 30. It is trailing China with 620.97 million jabs administered.
Meanwhile, the Philippines has administered 5,180,721 doses as of May 30.