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68% of 193K Pfizer doses arriving Monday allocated to NCR


A total of 132,210 shots of the 193,000 Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses set to arrive on Monday will be allocated to Metro Manila, according to Jonathan Andal's report on "24 Oras Weekend."

The first shipment of the vaccine from the US multinational and its German partner is expected to arrive on Monday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Saturday.

Cebu City and Davao City will each receive 15 percent of the shipment or 29,250 doses each.

The preferred storage for the vaccine is in ultra-low temperature freezers between -80ºC to -60ºC, but it can be stored "for five days at refrigerated 2-8°C conditions," Pfizer said. It is due to this requirement that vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. previously said that its distribution would be limited to Metro Manila, Cebu City, and Davao City.

However, Quirino Province will now receive 1,710 doses, while the remaining 1,710 doses will serve as buffer stock.

The largest real-world study of the Pfizer vaccine confirmed that the jab provided more than 95% protection against the virus.

However, it also found that the level dropped significantly when people received just one of the two prescribed doses.

Duque earlier said the Philippines is set to receive 1.1 million doses of Pfizer from the COVAX Facility, 500,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine, and 2 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine within this year.

The Philippines has so far reported 1,101,990 COVID-19 cases, including 1,022,224 recoveries and 18,472 deaths. — Ma. Angelica Garcia/BM, GMA News

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