DAVAO CITY — The Philippines already has a stockpile of 12,826,099 doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines which will be sufficient to meet the country’s vaccination needs for more than a month.


According to Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr, National Task Force Against COVID-19 and chief implementer and vaccine czar, the national government has in fact exceeded its target of having at least 10 million doses for its supply inventory.

“Sa ngayon po sumobra pa po tayo na 12,826,099 in which our supply can last up to 32 days or up to August 17,” Galvez said in his report during President Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk to the People address on Monday, July 19.

“Kampante po tayo na sa August 17 ay hindi po tayo mahihirapan [at hindi] na magkaroon ng shortage,” he added.

Biggest vaccine delivery

Galvez said the country received its largest vaccine delivery to date last week totaling 7,142,450 doses coming from various manufacturers.

From July 1 to 19, he said the Philippines received 10,464,550 vaccine doses, and expects to get an additional 9,353,340 shots until the end of the month.

“Kung maaalala po natin, Mr. President, ‘yung last June, 9 million lang ang ating na-receive. Pero ngayon kalahati pa lang ng buwan ay may na-receive na po tayo na more than 10 million,” Galvez said.

“Dati po tinatanong niyo po ako kung anong state ng stockpile. Tayo medyo maganda na po ang ating [stockpile] — hindi na po tayo kakaba-kaba,” he added.

To date, Galvez said a total of 27,922,360 vaccine doses have been delivered to the country since February.
Of this number, 15,501,200 were government-procured, consisting of 13,500,000 Sinovac doses, 1,150,800 AstraZeneca doses, 500,400 Moderna doses, and 350,000 Sputnik V doses.

On the other hand, 10,297,060 vaccine doses have been delivered by the WHO-led COVAX facility, comprising 4,584,000 AstraZeneca doses, 3,240,850 Johnson & Johnson doses, and 2,472,210 Pfizer doses.

Meanwhile, 2,124,100 vaccine doses have been donated to the country, consisting of 1 million Sinovac doses from the Chinese government and 1,124,100 AstraZeneca doses from the Japanese government.

“Nagpapasalamat po tayo, Mr. President, kasi ang karamihan po dito mga US donation po lalo na po ‘yung J&J na 3.2 [million], napakalaki po ‘yun na tulong po sa atin na one time. Iyon ang pinaka-biggest delivery po natin,” Galvez said.

All in all, Galvez said the country aims to secure a total of 164 million vaccine doses consisting of shots procured by the government, as well as those coming from the COVAX facility and various donor countries.

Vaccine deployment

The vaccine czar said the national government has already fully deployed 3 million AstraZeneca doses donated by the Japanese government and those coming from the COVAX facility.

“We are currently deploying the 3.2 million doses of J&J, 1.5 million doses of Sinovac and the 1.15 million doses for the private sector AstraZeneca procurement,” Galvez added.

Due to the cases of the Delta that have been detected in the country, he said the government is redeploying its vaccine supplies to Region X, NCR, Region VI as well as areas that have been place under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ).

Galvez, who flew to Cagayan de Oro with some Cabinet Secretaries on Monday, said that he brought with them 128,000 of the single-shot J&J doses for Region X, 20,000 for Cagayan de Oro City, and 3,000 for Gingoog City.

The government has likewise deployed 30,000 J&J vaccine doses each to the island-provinces of Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, which are under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Out of the 10 million vaccine doses delivered to the country this month, 300,000 have been allocated for the BARMM.

President Duterte pointed out that the Delta variant is 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant.

“We may need to reimpose stricter restrictions to avoid mass gathering and prevent super spreader events. Now, it is not only Indonesia, tinamaan ulit ang Korea at Taiwan. Sila ‘yung nag-lockdown kasi pumasok nga itong variant na Delta,” the President said.

“I hope that our existing infrastructure in dealing with the problem of COVID- 19 can cope up depende kung the vaccine — the vaccines for COVID-19 can be as effective in dealing with the [corona] virus Delta [variant],” he added.

​​The President also called on concerned government agencies to ramp up their information campaign on the vaccine program to address vaccine hesitancy and boost public uptake.

“I ask national and local quarters to heighten their vaccine information and education campaign to further increase vaccines,” he said.

“Alam mo ‘yung the importance of vaccines — ‘yang ‘yung word na “the importance of vaccines” you must get the vaccine or you die. Ilang beses na ‘yan na sinasabi na — many times,” the President added.

Vaccines administered

Galvez reported that the Philippines has already breached the 15 million mark last July 17 in total jabs administered.

He noted the country was able to achieve this milestone just three days after it hit the 14 million mark.
“Sa tatlong araw nakapagbabakuna po tayo ng isang milyon. Iyon po ang na-accomplish po natin ngayon,” Galvez said.

The chief implementer said the country also achieved its highest daily vaccination throughput last July 15 with 391,283 jabs, as well as its highest weekly inoculation rate of 1,899,979 doses.

As of July 15, 10,388,188 Filipinos have received their first vaccine dose, while 4,708,073 individuals have been fully vaccinated.

Galvez said that by the end of July, the government aims to receive at least 16 million doses, administer around 10 million jabs, and carry out at 300,000 to 400,000 inoculations a day.

He said the government also seeks to fully vaccinate 7 million Filipinos and administer the second dose for 90 percent of the country’s health care workers. END