COVID vaccination program will take up to 5 years due to supply, services issues —Galvez

The government's COVID-19 vaccination program will take three to five years because of the challenges in supply as well as in available services, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.

In a Palace briefing on Thursday, Galvez was asked about the factors that affect the timeline of the vaccination.

“Marami po tayong tinatawag na challenges. One is ‘yung supply and demand ng world market,” he said.

Galvez added that the country usually manages only five million vaccinations annually under its immunization program.

“So kung ngayon, gagawin nating simultaneous at massive ang vaccination, ang makakaya lang po ng ating mga services, kasi nga nakita po natin ang isa pinaka-importante na dapat nating i-consider, tatlong cold chain ang management na gagawin po natin,” he said.

On Wednesday, Galvez said the government is planning to administer COVID-19 vaccines to 20 up to 30 million Filipinos yearly within five years.

He added that the government targets to vaccinate 60 million to 70 million Filipinos in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The best case scenario, Galvez said, would be for the mass vaccination to be launched either by the second quarter of 2021 or by the middle of 2021.

The worst case scenario, he added, will be for the mass vaccination to start at the end of 2021 or in early 2022.

The Philippines placed near the bottom of Bloomberg's "COVID resilience rankings," which included among its key metrics each country's agreements made on vaccine procurement.

"By ranking their access to a coronavirus vaccine, we also provide a window into how these economies’ fortunes may shift in the future," the site said.

"With a vaccine seen as the silver bullet that could end the pandemic, securing supply is an important component of an economy’s COVID-19 response," it added.

The Philippines' score on this metric is zero. — BM, GMA News