PH to receive 60 millionth dose of COVID-19 vaccine
On Sunday, September 19, the country is poised to reach another mislestone in its national inoculation program against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as it will receive its 60 millionth dose.
As of Saturday, the total supply stood at 59,359,810 doses.
Three million doses of Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine will be delivered around 6 p.m. Sunday while 2,020,590 doses of Pfizer will arrive around 11:30 p.m. of same day.
The Sinovac jabs were procured by the government while the Pfizer shots were donated to the country by the global vaccine sharing initiative, COVAX facility.
"Magkakaroon na tayo ng more or less 64 million. Nakikita ko na once matapos ang September or October, we can surpass 110 million na makakadating sa atin (We would have more or less 64 million. I expect that when September or October ends, we can surpass 110 million delivered to us)," said Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19.
Most of the current supply were composed of Sinovac vaccine with 33 million doses -- 32 million were procured by the national government from China while one million doses were donated by the Chinese government.
Other vaccine brands are as follows:
- AstraZeneca with 9,595,440 total doses including 3,472,300 doses procured by the national government, private sector, and local government units (LGUs), 4,584,000 donated doses from COVAX, and 1,539,140 donated doses from Japan and United Kingdom;
- Pfizer with 6,596,460 total doses including 3,935,880 procured doses and 2,660,580 donated doses from COVAX;
- Moderna with 5,257,060 total doses including 2,257,000 procured doses and 3,000,060 donated doses from COVAX;
-Janssen Pharmaceutical's Johnson & Johnson (J&J) with 3,240,850 donated doses from COVAX;
- Sinopharm with 1.1 million donated doses from China and United Kingdom; and
- Sputnik V with 570,000 procured doses.
Galvez said that once there are "sizeable" supply of COVID-19 vaccines, the inoculation of some 20 million adolescents may begin.
"Once we achieve that, maybe we can convince now the NITAG that we have ample supply for the vaccination of our adolescents," he said.
As of Friday, a total of 40,991,974 shots were already administered nationwide. Around 22.7 million Filipinos have received their first dose while 18.2 others have been fully vaccinated.