Philippines to receive 3.4M doses of COVID-19 vaccines in June, says Roque

At least 3.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be delivered in the Philippines in June, the Palace said Monday.

Of this number, one million doses of Sinovac are expected to arrive on June 6, 1.3 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech on June 7, another 900,000 Pfizer-BioNTech doses again on June 11 and 200,000 of Moderna doses on June 21.

If the timelime pushes through, the 200,000 doses Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will be the first batch of Moderna doses to reach Philippine shores.

The Philippines bought 20 million doses of Moderna, an American brand like Pfizer BioNTech.

Of the 20 million Moderna doses, 13 million doses were paid for by the national government while 7 million doses were paid for by the private sector.

The Philippines has vaccinated five million Filipinos so far, but only 1.1 million of these people are fully vaccinated with two doses.

Roque maintained that such statistic is not bad given the country’s limited vaccine supply.

“The bulk of our vaccine supply is yet to arrive. Of course, we want more people to get vaccinated,” he said.

“But this five million people getting a vaccine is already an accomplishment given the tight vaccine supply,” he added.

The government started its COVID-19 vaccination program last March 1.

The Philippines has at least 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine supply so far.

Vaccine brands delivered to the Philippines to date include Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sputnik V. — RSJ, GMA News