50,000 doses of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Manila

A total of 50,000 doses of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Manila on Sunday night.

The vaccine doses were flown in by Qatar Airways Flight QR928 which arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 before midnight, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said.

These were then brought to PharmaServ Warehouse in Marikina City.

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlov were at NAIA to welcome the vaccines' arrival, according to a report by Mai Bermudez on Unang Balita on Monday.

The NTF Against COVID-19 said that from the warehouse, the vaccines will be delivered to "centers of gravity" or areas where there are surges in COVID-19 cases.

Galvez said these pertain to the National Capital Region and other areas.

To date, the Philippines has received a total of 80,000 doses of Sputnik V, including the Sunday shipment.

On May 1, a total of 15,000 Sputnik V doses arrived, followed by another 15,000 doses on May 12.

The Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Russia.

Pavlov said the arrival of Sputnik V vaccines will strengthen the ties between Russia and the Philippines. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the start of bilateral relations between the two countries.

"We have... decided to help the Filipino people and ...we are ready to deliver 20 million doses of Sputnik V according to the contracts that have been signed between the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Government of the Philippines," he added. 

More vaccines arriving

Galvez said more COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in Manila in June.

These are:

• June 6: one million doses of Sinovac vaccine
• June 7: 1.3 million doses of Pfizer vaccine
• June 11: 900,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine
• June 21: Moderna vaccines
• June (no specific date): AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines

"Nakikita namin sa this coming June 7 and onward, mapapabilis tayo," Galvez said.

(We see that this coming June 7 and onward, our vaccination will be faster.)

"Nakita natin ngayon we are very thankful na we have already breached 'yung 5 million [doses administered]. So meron tayong 5,120,023 vaccines that have already been administered," he said.

(We saw and we are very thankful that we have already breached 5 million [doses administered]. So we have 5,120,023 vaccines that have already been administered.)

"And hopefully by June, we can breach also another four million [vaccines administered]," Galvez added.

The government is hoping to have 10 million Filipinos vaccinated by the end of June.

Vaccination for the A4 priority group (economic frontliners) will start in June. —KG, GMA News