Philippines already bought $1 billion worth of COVID-19 vaccines, says Palace

The Philippine government has bought 89 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine worth US $1 billion so far, Malacañang said Monday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that of this amount, the government paid US $400 million so far.

"So far, government has paid 400 million US dollars from GAA (doon sa ating budget) at saka sa mga [loans galing] multilateral financial institutions," Roque said.

Roque said he did not have the complete amount yet on the cost of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the global aid facility COVAX as well as those of China and Japan.

"Tapos siyempre po iyong donasyon ng COVAX ay nagku-coordinate pa po ang ating Department of Finance with the DOH for the latest figures," Roque added.

(We are still coordinating with the Finance department for the latest figures.)

The Philippines has vaccinated 13 million individuals so far. Of this number, 3.52 million are fully vaccinated.

The Philippines is eyeing to vaccinate 58 million people in highly urbanized areas by the end of the year for population protection.

The vaccine brands available in the country issued emergency use authorization by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration include: Sinovac, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V. —NB, GMA News