Philippines to receive 5.6M vaccine doses in first quarter —Galvez

The Philippines will receive at least 5.6 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines within the first quarter of 2021, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. announced Sunday.

“Today, we received a letter from Aurélia Nguyen, managing director of the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility, officially informing the Philippine government that the country stands to receive a total of 9,407,400 doses from the two pharmaceutical makers within the projected first and second quarters of this year,” he said in a statement.

Galvez said the letter indicated that the country will receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as well as 5.5 million to 9.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab in mid- to late February.

“The vaccines under COVAX can now inoculate our healthcare workers, medical-related personnel, and other frontliners,” he said.

The Philippine government recently adopted a deployment plan for the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines next month. 

Meanwhile, Galvez expressed confidence that several local government units and the private sector were “ready” for the vaccine rollout.

“We would therefore like to urge all Filipinos to set their fears aside and have themselves inoculated once these vaccines are available,” he appealed.

Two polls earlier showed low public confidence in vaccines, with only 25% of Metro Manila residents and 32% of adult Filipinos willing to get inoculated. 

Galvez said a vaccine information drive would be key to boosting public trust. 

The Philippines has logged 525,618 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Sunday afternoon. — BM, GMA News