The country is expecting to receive 190,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine from Russia by this weekend or early next week, the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 disclosed Friday, September 17.

In a statement, vaccine czar and NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said the arriving Sputnik V jabs would be used as component two or for second dose inoculation. He said this will complement the scheduled arrival of one million doses of Sputnik Light vaccine within this month.

"This shipment of Sputnik V vaccines shall be used for the second dose. After this, we will be receiving the single-shot Sputnik V Light as we move forward with our vaccine rollout," Galvez said.

The vaccine czar eased concerns of the recipients of the first dose of Sputnik V due to the delay in the delivery of supplies for their second dose.

“As per our vaccine experts from the Department of Health, the gap between first and second doses of Sputnik V can be as long as six months, so no need to worry because the vaccines are arriving soon,” Galvez explained.

Meanwhile, the NTF official expressed hope that more people will be inoculated with Sputnik Light since it only takes one dose to achieve the maximum available protection that it provides.

“The Sputnik V Light is more efficient because we will be able to protect more people faster. This would eliminate the problem wherein people fail to return for their second dose,” Galvez noted.

As of September 15, the country has received a total of 57,547,610 vaccine doses from various manufacturers, of which over 36 million doses were procured by the national government.

The country has also breached the 40th million mark in terms of vaccine administration administration with 40,030,388 shots given as of September 15.

Of this, a total of 17,675,959 individuals were fully vaccinated while 22,354,429 others received their first dose.