NTF says 9.58 million COVID vaccine doses also delivered from Sept 13 to 19, making this the highest weekly delivery since February
(Eagle News) — The Philippines received more than 2.5 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses in the past two days from the US government bringing to over 9.1 million doses the Pfizer vaccines so far delivered to the country.
The latest arrival was the additional 561,600 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech shots on Monday evening, September 20, following the 2,020,590 doses of Pfizer shots also donated by the US government through the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility which arrived on Sept. 19, Sunday.
“I’m really proud that we donated for the last two days more than 2 million doses that will give more than a million Filipinos full vaccination,” US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Heather Variava said during an interview posted by the National Task Force against COVID-19.
Variava also thanked the government of the Philippines, World Health Organization, and UNICEF for the continuing partnership which is helping to save lives and overcome the pandemic.
To date, the Philippines has received some 16 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the COVAX Facility, according to the NTF
National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 special adviser Dr. Teodoro Herbosa announced that the majority of the half a million doses of Pfizer vaccines delivered on Monday will be deployed to region 4-A, region 3, Cebu, and Davao.
“We continue to catch up in those areas where we only have about 3% to 5% fully vaccinated [individuals]. So hinahabol talaga natin ‘yung outside NCR.” Herbosa said.
NTF Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr, conveyed President Rodrigo Duerte’s gratitude to the US government and the COVAX facility.
“The President is very grateful and very thankful to GAVI and COVAX particularly to the US for providing us the much-needed vaccines. The donations that you have given to us, initially the Moderna and the J&J, have been very useful,” Galvez said.
The vaccine czar said the 2 million doses of Pfizer vaccines that arrived last Sunday will be deployed to priority areas, particularly to Regions 4-A, 3, 6, 7, 11, 9, 1, and 2.
This newest shipment brings to 9.1 million the total number of delivered Pfizer doses.
The latest batch of Pfizer vaccines were immediately transported to the Pharmaserve cold storage facility in Marikina City.
Pfizer vaccines are among the vaccines permitted by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used for children aged 12 and above.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the country’s panel of vaccine experts have not yet given the green light for the vaccination of those below 18 years old in the country.
Meanwhile, WHO representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe gave the assurance that the COVAX facility will continue to send Pfizer vaccines to the country in the coming days.
“Over the next week or two, we will bring up to 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccines. That is meant to help the Philippines respond to the current surge and protect as many Filipino lives as possible,” Abeyasinghe said.
-Huge number of vaccine deliveries since Friday –
The arrival of the Pfizer doses came after another three million Sinovac’s Coranavac doses arrived in the country also on Sunday, Sept. 19. The latest vaccine shipment from Sinovac arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport past 6 p.m. via a commercial Philippine Airlines flight.
Before this, after several delays, the component 2 or the second dose of Sputnik V vaccines consisting of 190,000 doses finally arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on Saturday night, September 18.
Also on Saturday, close to a million Moderna doses also arrived in the country. The China Airlines flight C1703 landed at the Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport past 3 p.m., Saturday, carrying 961,000 doses of the U.S made COVID-19 vaccines.
On Friday, Sept. 17, some 661,200 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses procured by local government units and private sector under the Dose of Hope Program arrived in the Philippines.
The NTF also said that 9,586,270 COVID-19 vaccine doses were delivered from September 13 to 19, making it the highest weekly delivery since February when the country started receiving vaccines from various manufacturers.
(Eagle News Service)