Palace: There will be enough vaccines for 70M Filipinos this year

The Philippines will have enough vaccines for at least 70 million Filipinos within 2021, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. said.

Roque made the assurance even though the arrival of the first batch of 117,000 Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility has been delayed due to the lack of an indemnification measure on the part of the Philippine government in the event that a COVID-19 vaccine recipient experiences adverse side effects.

Roque said that the Philippines will secure more than 160 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the following:

• 44 million doses from the WHO-led COVAX facility, arriving in February
• 25 million doses from Sinovac, arriving in February
• 10 to 15 million doses from Gamaleya (Sputnik V), arriving in April
• 30 million doses from Novavax, arriving in May
• 17 million doses from AstraZeneca, arriving in May
• 20 million doses from Moderna, arriving in July

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• 15 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, arriving in August and
• five million doses from Johnson & Johnson (Janssen), arriving in October

Almost all the abovementioned vaccines are given in two doses, except for Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine.

“We will have vaccines because we are not just dependent on the Western vaccines. There is also Novovax, which is going to be the largest volume that we will order 'no,” Roque said in a press conference.

“So kampante po tayo na sapat-sapat ang magiging bakuna natin,” Roque added.

Apart from the COVAX facility, which is a global effort aiding developing countries’ COVID-19 response, the vaccine manufacturers are from Western countries, except for China's Sinovac and Russia's Gamaleya.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. earlier said that at least 70 million Filipinos will be given COVID-10 vaccines within 2021 in a best-case scenario.

The Philippine Food and Drug Administration has only issued emergency use authorization (EUA) to two vaccine brands so far: Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca.

An EUA is needed for a vaccine to be legally administered in the country.

The FDA, however, issued a compassionate special permit to 10,000 doses of Chinese vaccine Sinopharm for the use of the members of the Presidential Security Group. — BM, GMA News