146M doses of COVID-19 vaccines to arrive in Philippines before year-end —Dominguez

The Philippines will be assured of enough vaccine doses to cover its entire adult population as the country has so far secured a total of 194.89 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.

In his remarks during a televised meeting of President Rodrigo Duterte with select Cabinet officials last Thursday night, Dominguez said the total number of vaccines secured for the country are enough to inoculate about 100.5 million Filipinos or more than 100% of the country's adult population.

Of the said number, the Finance chief said that 48.89 million doses were delivered to the country from March 1 to August 25.

Another 42.11 million doses are due to arrive between August 26 and September 30 and in the last quarter of this year, the government expects to receive an additional 103.59 million doses.

In total, 145.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to arrive in the country towards the end of the year.

"So actually, we are expecting roughly 50 million doses a month—from September to December. If that happens, maybe by January we should have been able to inoculate everyone," Dominguez said.

In particular, the national government expects its stocks of COVID-19 vaccines to total 170 million doses, along with another 24.90 million doses financed by local government units (LGUs) and the private sector.

As of August 26, Dominguez said the national government has secured financing for a total of 105.65 million doses that were funded through loans amounting to $1.126 billion from multilateral development institutions such as the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

“Wala ho tayong problema sa pera, may financing na lahat yan at (We won’t have problems with money, everything is financed and) we don't have to worry about money here. We have already all the money ready to be paid for these doses,” the Finance chief said.

Dominguez said a total of 48.84 million doses came from donations from the Philippines' bilateral partners and the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access or COVAX Facility.

The allocation of P8.42 billion or approximately $176.5 million for COVID-19 vaccines under the 2021 General Appropriations Act enabled the government to procure 15.5 million doses, he said.

With the procurements of the LGUs and the private sector supplementing the national government’s efforts to source COVID-19 vaccines, the Philippines is assured of 194.89 million vaccine doses that are enough to inoculate 100.5  million Filipinos, Dominguez said. -MDM, GMA News