Gov't persistent in efforts to procure more vaccines —Galvez

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. has assured that the government remains persistent in its efforts in procuring as many COVID-19 vaccines as possible to ensure that Filipinos will have equal opportunities to access these shots.

"Rest assured that the Duterte administration has been relentless in acquiring these vaccines to ensure that the country will have a fair share of the doses," Galvez said in a statement issued on Sunday.

He reported that he recently went to the Serum Institute of India to directly deal with the procurement of Covovax vaccine and guarantee both short- and long-term vaccine supplies.

Meanwhile, another team is expected to go to Russia to conduct further studies on the vaccine being produced by Gamaleya: the Sputnik V vaccine.

Galvez likewise responded to reports that the Philippines has borrowed more than P10 trillion for its vaccination program.

He cited the statement of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, where he said that the government has P82.5 billion for its national vaccination program, of which P62 billion has been sourced from development partners and the remaining funds are financed internally.

"We have secured enough funding from abroad right now as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank approved just this week separate loans to cover the entire P62-billion component that we plan to secure overseas," he quoted Dominguez as saying.

All copies of these loan and grant agreements, Galvez said, are available on the Department of Finance's website.

Dominguez, however, admitted that having the funds does not guarantee that the country will be able to get all the vaccine doses it needs now, Galvez added.

The Philippines began its COVID-19 vaccination program on March 1 after the arrival of 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines, which was immediately followed by 487,000 doses of vaccines from AstraZeneca.

On March 7, another batch of 38,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in the country.

The 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines were donated by the Chinese government, while the AstraZeneca vaccines that arrived were donated and sent by the COVAX facility. —KG, GMA News