Philippines expecting Pfizer, Moderna doses in May, June, says Romualdez

The Philippines is expecting to doses of Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines in May and June respectively, Manila’s Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez said Tuesday.

At a Palace news conference, Romualdez said the initial 117,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine would "most likely be coming next month.”

Close to 200,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine, meanwhile, will be delivered to the Philippines in June, he said.

“I think they’re quite confident that they will be able to [ensure] the delivery of our vaccines starting June 15. And then, it will start increasing in succeeding months, July, August, September up to the end of the year. They will complete the 20 million [doses] before the end of the year,” Romualdez said.

Romualdez said legal issues prevented the early delivery of Pfizer shots.

“The reason why there has been a delay [in the delivery of] Pfizer [vaccine] is because there’s been some legal problems that we have to overcome. I think our Department of Justice is already in the final phase of just making sure that the indemnity agreement is clear and that the government is well-protected also,” Romualdez said.

“That one is being completed and hopefully next week, Secretary Galvez and Mark Joven, the undersecretary of finance, will be able to complete that transaction," he added.

The Philippines has so far received over three million doses of the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, more than 1.4 million of which have been administered to health workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities. --NB, GMA News