COVID-19 VACCINES | Covax sends to the Philippines first shipment of AstraZeneca doses

March 3, 2021 , 04:48 PM

(March 3, 2021) – Close to half a million vaccines from a British pharmaceutical company are expected to arrive on Thursday night, the second shipment of doses against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a top government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Harry Roque said about 487,200 AstraZeneca vaccines are expected at around 7:30 pm at an airbase in Manila, the first batch of an estimated 44 million doses from the COVAX initiative of the World Health Organization.

Some 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca were supposed to come on Monday, but Health Secretary Francisco Duque III attributed the delay to the limitations in the global supply chain. WHO Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said logistical problems prompted the delay.

But a more cautious Carlito Galvez, the country’s vaccine czar declined to confirm the same information, saying he will announce the delivery as soon as the plane that will deliver the vaccines has left its origin in Europe.

Last week, Roque said 525,600 AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive on March 1.

But health officials said the delivery was postponed due to supply problems.

Roque did not explain why only 487,200 vaccines will arrive on Thursday.

He said President Rodrigo Duterte promised to welcome the vaccine at the airbase similar to what he did when the 600,000 Chinese doses arrived on Sunday.

On the third day of mass immunization, health workers from several private hospitals in the capital region which are treating COVID-19 patients were inoculated.

Some 20,000 doses have also been distributed to medical centers in Cebu and Davao to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of supply in the entire archipelago.

Galvez said the government aimed to finish distributing the Sinovac doses by the end of the week to have a smooth rollout of vaccines in hospitals nationwide.

Nearly 2,800 people in 11 hospitals have taken their CoronaVac shots, the vaccine manufactured by the private Chinese firm.

Officials have continued negotiating with various vaccine manufacturers to fulfill their target of inoculating up to 70 million Filipinos as they sought to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year. Galvez has said he was positive that the country would get 168 million doses by December, but it would still be highly dependent on the available supply globally.

(Beatrice Puente/MM)

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