DOH: Vaccine supply, inoculation targets to even out once doses arrive

The country’s coronavirus vaccine supply and its inoculation targets will even out once more doses are delivered, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday after a lawmaker raised concern on the “huge” disparity between the two figures.

Marikina City Representative Stella Quimbo earlier questioned why the DOH aims to inoculate 25.1 million people by the end of June when the supply is only expected to allow for some 7 million vaccinations. 

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said this disparity was caused by a supply shortage.

“Ang ating mga supply ng bakuna, dependent din sa global supply. Kahit na there are commitments already for our country, hindi pa rin po natin maibigay ‘yung kasiguraduhan na talagang ‘pag March nila sinabi, dadating ng March,” she said in a briefing.

(Our supply of vaccines is dependent on the global supply. Even if there are commitments already for our country, there is still no assurance that deliveries will arrive exactly when they said it would.)

In the meantime, Vergeire said the DOH is focusing on the simultaneous vaccination of the top three priority sectors—health workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities—“just to cover as much population as we can.”

“Pagdating po no’ng ating mga supply, once it starts pouring in, magkakaroon na po ‘yan ng pagkakapantay, those master listed and the supplies that we are having,” she said.

(Once the supplies start pouring in, we will see the number of master listed vaccine recipients and our supplies even out.)

The Philippines has vaccinated over 700,000 individuals as of March 29. 

The country currently has over 2 million doses of the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, which is not enough to cover around 1.8 million health workers, 9 million senior citizens, and 14.5 million persons with comorbidities. 

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. previously said the government expects to receive up to 20 million doses every month from August to December of this year.  — RSJ, GMA News