More than 2M AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses arrive for private sector

A total of 2,005,300 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine purchased by the private sector arrived in Manila on Tuesday.

In a briefing, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said the doses will be part of the last batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to arrive in the country, with more doses expected on Wednesday.

This will complete the 17 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine doses secured for the country in a tripartite agreement with the national government and vaccine manufacturers.

Concepcion said the private sector is now starting to allow booster shots for employees who had received two COVID-19 vaccine doses.

"Hopefully we complete everything before the end of the first quarter [of 2022]," he said.

"Omicron might be the variant that might give us a chance to turn the pandemic into endemic," Concepcion added. "If we hit 70 or 80 percent of the population fully vaccinated with booster shots, there is no reason why we should even get scared if infection goes up," he said.

Concepcion said businesses agree that the Philippines should remain under Alert Level 2, adding that many entrepreneurs have rebounded and reached about 80% of their pre-pandemic sales.

"They had a great fourth quarter. What's good, many of them will be able to pay their 13th month pay, many of them are ready to pay their obligations. But if we have another lockdown, of course, they will have a hard time. So let's open up the economy. Let's not be aggressive by bringing it down to Alert Level 1. Let's stay at Alert Level 2," Concepcion said.

Vaccines arriving

At the same briefing, National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Philippines now has about 205 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and five million doses are still expected before 2021.

"By the end of this year, we are expecting to have more or less 210 million [vaccine doses] all in all," Galvez said.

According to him, the Philippine government was able to vaccinate 879,000 individuals this holiday season.

In a statement, Galvez said a total of 1,981,500 AstraZeneca doses are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.

He also said the government's vaccination program reached a milestone after breaching the 200-million mark.

Galvez said there were 4,120 vaccine doses reportedly destroyed in areas hit by Typhoon Odette, but the government is still waiting for reports from Surigao and other areas in the Caraga region. —KG, GMA News