Philippines can't vaccinate 70% of population vs. COVID-19 in a year

The Philippines can't vaccinate 70% of its population against COVID-19 within a year, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Friday.

Vergeire made the remark after National Task Force vs. COVID-19 chief Carlito Galvez, Jr. said that the vaccination of over 100 million Filipinos would take five years or 20 million annually.

“If we can have it implemented in one year, we would want that very much but we are faced with the reality which is lack of resources. We do not have much vaccines that we can get a hold of in 2021,” Vergeire said when asked if she found Galvez's timeline too slow.

“We don’t have a sufficient amount of vaccines to be able to achieve the targeted 70% [of the population], and there is also an implementation challenge,” she added.

Vergeire said that DOH had been able to meet a target of vaccinating 85% of 22.9 million Filipinos in one month. This was last achieved 22 years ago in 1998.

But for the administration of COVID-19 vaccine, Vergeire did not give an estimated timeline but instead vowed best effort on the part of the DOH.

“We will see how we will be able to vaccinate as many people at a specific time. There are challenges, factors have to be considered such as logistical component,” Vergeire said.

“Iyong five years, that is reasonable, considering iyong requirements ng immunization, but whether that it is early, late, we are not going to say that," she added.

"What we can say is we will strategize, and we will start off with the vulnerable sector such as the health care workers since they are the ones frequently exposed,” Vergeire said.

Vergeire said other members of the vulnerable sector were the elderly who are susceptible to sickness and the indigents who do not have enough resources to pay for health care.

“We will start with removing the threat and risk in vulnerable sectors because that would provide more benefit to the population,” Vergeire said.

On Friday, the private sector, the government and British firm AstraZeneca inked a vaccine supply agreement which allows the private sector to buy 2.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and later donate them to the government.

The 2.6 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19, per AstraZeneca, will be enough for one million people.

The AstraZeneca deal is the first COVID-19 vaccine supply agreement that the Philippines has secured.

Based on results of its human clinical trials, AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine's efficacy reached 70% after first half dose but it increases to 90% after administration of second full dose a month after the first half dose is given.

Likewise, AstraZeneca's COVID-19 is cheaper since it does not require ultra low freezer storage unlike that of COVID-19 vaccines made by American firms Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna which were found 94% effective after human trials. -NB, GMA News