Palace: Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from COVAX to be used on health workers, elderly

At least two million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines donated by global aid facility COVAX will also be available to health workers and the elderly, among other vulnerable sectors, Malacañang said Friday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. made the clarification a day after he said that President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered the inoculation of the poor and indigent population with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

“These are the 193,000 doses and the two million doses [of Pfizer-BioNTech] arriving [from COVAX]. It is our obligation, based on COVAX regulation, to give these to health workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, and indigents or the poor,” Roque said during a Laging Handa briefing.

Roque said this was in accordance with the COVAX’s goal of providing equal access to vaccines.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said 2.2 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX is expected to arrive in the country by the end of the month.

Based on the evaluation of the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pfizer-BioNTech has an efficacy rate of 95% on study population and 92% across all races.

These rates are the highest among the COVID-19 vaccine brands issued with emergency use authorizations (EUA) by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration. The other brands include AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Janssen, Moderna, Covaxin, and Sputnik V.

Under the government's COVID-19 vaccination program, the first in line are health workers and local officials, followed by the elderly or those over 60 years of age, persons with comorbidities, economic frontliners or those who are required to physically report to work amid quarantine restrictions and the poor/indigent population. -MDM, GMA News