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Senate suspends hearing on nat'l COVID-19 vaccination program, to resume Friday
By MA. ANGELICA GARCIA, GMA NewsThe Senate Committee of the Whole on Monday suspended the hearing on the national COVID-19 vaccination program.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the hearing will resume at 10 a.m. on Friday, January 15.
During the hearing, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the bulk of the COVID-19 vaccines
that will be available in the Philippines will be the ones developed by US drug maker Novavax.The Philippines has already allocated P73.2 billion for the procurement of the vaccines, with P40 billion coming from multilateral agencies, P20 billion from domestic sources, and P13.2 billion from bilateral agreements.
The government plans to inoculate 50 to 70 million individuals within the year and the earliest possible arrival of vaccines may happen by February 20. Some 50,000 people are expected to be vaccinated by that time.
Galvez said the government has already secured 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and may secure 60 million more this week.
He expressed hope that normalcy in the lives of the Filipino people would be restored by 2023.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the Philippine government has identified a total of
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However, individuals below 16 years old will not be vaccinated as further research is needed to ascertain if COVID-19 vaccines are safe for children, according to World Health Organization (WHO) country representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe.
Meanwhile, senators questioned why the national government seemed to be monopolizing the procurement of COVID-19 as the private sector and the local government units are not allowed to deal directly with the pharmaceutical firms.
FDA director general Eric Domingo reiterated that the emergency use authorization (EUA) that will be issued for the COVID-19 vaccines is not a market authorization.—AOL, GMA News