NTF adviser: Philippines bought more Western vax than Chinese

National Task Force Against COVID-19 medical adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said Sunday that the Philippines purchased more  vaccines developed  by Western countries than it did China-made doses for the country's inoculation program against the severe respiratory disease.

Herbosa said that those who claim the Philippines has procured more China-made Sinovac vaccines than the Western brands may have gotten the wrong data. 

"Mas marami tayong binili na Moderna, Astra[Zeneca] kaysa sa Sinovac" (We bought more Moderna, AstraZeneca than Sinovac)," said Herbosa over Super Radyo dzBB.

"Mali ang datos nila. Forty million ang biniling Pfizer, 20 million ang Moderna at AstraZeneca naka-17 million ang binili natin. Mas marami ang binili na Western vaccine kaysa Chinese-made vaccine," he added.

(They have the wrong data. We bought 40 million doses of Pfizer, 20 million doses from Moderna, and 17 million AstraZeneca. We bought more Western vaccines than Chinese-made vaccine.)

On reaching the target of 54 million fully-inoculated Filipinos, Herbosa said they are raising vaccination output in bigger regions in the country to hopefully achieve this target.

"Kakayanin natin 'yan. Hopefully, 'yung average natin noong before Christmas was 900,000 to 1 million a day" (We will try to hit the target. Hopefully, we will meet the pre-Christmas the  daily rate)," said Herbosa.

"Hopefully, mag-ka-catch-up ang ibang areas. Ang ginawa namin dahil bumagal sa affected by Typhoon Odette, pina-increase nain 'yung output ng malalaking rehiyon kagaya ng Region 3, Region 4A para mahabol nating ang 54 million by December 31," he further pointed out.

(Hopefully, other areas may catch up. Since other Odette-hit areas slowed down their vaccination, we increased the output in Region 3, Region 4A so that we can achieve the target of 54 million by December 31.)

The national government halted the vaccination operation from December 24 to 26 to allow vaccinators to spend the holidays with their respective families.

The national government's figures showed that the country received more than 192 million doses of vaccines from various manufacturers.

As of December 25, the National COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard showed that 47 million Filipinos were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 1.36 million received booster doses. —LBG, GMA News