Philippine COVID-19 vaccination could begin in Q1 or start of Q2 2021 —Duque

Vaccination in the Philippines for COVID-19 could start within the first half of 2021, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Monday, noting this is the "best-case scenario."

“Ang best-case scenario sa atin ay by first quarter of 2021 or start of second quarter of 2021,” Duque said in an ANC interview.

Duque, however, conceded that the timeline for completing the COVID-19 vaccination is not yet certain.

“Of course, it will take time because the schedule would include distribution of vaccines, deployment of people for inoculation,” he said.

Only COVID-19 vaccines made by American firms Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and British firm AstraZeneca-Oxford University have been proven at least 90% effective after human trials so far.

COVID-19 vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, however, need a -70 to -80 degrees Celsius ultra low freezer for storage to ensure the vaccines’ effectivity — a challenge for countries with limited resources like the Philippines.

“We do not have that (ultra low freezer) as of the moment, according to the information I got from the Department of Trade and Industry,” Duque said.

Duque said that Pfizer is mulling on giving Philippines assistance in this aspect.

“Our vaccine czar, Secretary Carlito Galvez, said that Pfizer might be willing to provide this very sophisticated -70 degrees cold storage to ensure effectiveness of the vaccines,” he said.

Regulators in the United Kingdom already granted emergency use authorization (EUA) application of Pfizer-BioNTech for its COVID-19 vaccines last week, making the UK the first country in the world to do so.

The Philippines, for its part, already secured 2.6 million doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccines via a tripartite agreement with the private sector and AstraZeneca, with the private sector shouldering the cost.

The 2.6 million doses will be good for one million people.

AstraZeneca has yet to secure EUA from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration.

The Philippines has registered 439,834 COVID-19 cases so far. Of this number, 408,634 recovered while 8,554 died. The number of active COVID-19 cases is at 22,646. —KBK, GMA News