PASAY CITY (28 October 2021) — The Philippines did not have to wait for the end of this month to hit its target, as the country received a total of 100,528,240 COVID-19 vaccine doses following the delivery on Thursday of 976,950 government-procured Pfizer-BioNTech jabs.

“Today, we celebrate another milestone in our national vaccination program. Initially, there were those who doubted that this feat could be achieved given the many challenges we had to face and overcome,” said National Task Force against COVID 19 Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. in a press conference following the arrival of the vaccines..

Galvez commended member-agencies of the task force, as well as the private sector, LGUs and international partner organizations for their support and commitment to help the country secure and scale up its vaccine supply.

“This achievement is not only a product of a nation’s people working together, but is also a testament of the strong cooperation among international and multilateral partners and stakeholders to save lives and humanity,” he said.

Whole-of-government, whole-of-nation approach

Galvez underscored the significant contribution of the tripartite agreement forged between manufacturers, the private sector, LGUs, and the national government to secure the 24.9 million vaccine doses that have significantly expanded the country’s supply inventory.

“The pooling of resources was an effective strategy to ensure our vaccine allocations from various manufacturers, and assure their timely delivery to the country,” he said.

“We are grateful particularly to the private sector and LGUs who have willingly shared their resources so that our country could continue to scale up its vaccine supply,” Galvez added.

Galvez thanked Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion and Mr Enrique Razon of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) for initiating the multiparty agreements for AstraZeneca and Moderna, respectively.

Of the 100.52 million doses delivered to the Philippines, 62.67 million doses were government procured, 7.98 million doses were procured by the private sector and LGUs, 24.33 million doses were sourced through the COVAX facility, and 5.53 million doses were direct donations of partner nations.

In terms of brands, the country received a total of 12.69 million doses of Astrazeneca, 27.31 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, 44.5 million doses of Sinovac, 1.69 million doses of Sputnik V, 9.98 million doses of Moderna, 3.24 million doses of Johnson & Johnson, and 1.1 million doses of Sinopharm.

Likewise, the vaccine czar acknowledged the tireless efforts being exerted by the members of the Vaccine Expert Panel in deliberating on the efficacy of vaccines, and giving timely recommendations on the vaccines that should be included in the country’s vaccine portfolio.

He also underscored the invaluable contribution of the Department of Finance led by Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Undersecretary Mark Joven in negotiating with the various vaccine makers, as well as sourcing funds for the country’s procurement.

Galvez thanked the Department of Health led by Secretary Francisco Duque III, National Vaccination Operations Center Chair Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, and Secretary Vivencio Dizon for the efficient rollout of the national vaccine program – from supply allocation, to deployment, handling, and administration.

International cooperation

Galvez also cited partner nations such as the United States, China, Japan, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Brunei, Australia, France, European Union and Germany for the vaccine donations they provided through the COVAX-GAVI facility, as well as direct donations to the country.

These donations, he said, substantially increased the country’s supply of Sinovac, Pfizer-BioNTech, Astrazeneca and Moderna. These donations also facilitate the Philippines’ initial supply of Johnson & Johnson and Sinopharm vaccines.

The vaccine czar thanked vaccine manufacturing countries such as China, Russia, and US for giving access to the Philippine government.

Galvez likewise thanked the World Health Organization for its holistic pandemic response efforts, particularly in its effective management and deployment of life-saving doses to countries which needed them the most, and for controlling the spread of the virus.

US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Heather Variava underscored the need for cooperation and collaboration among countries in the global fight against COVID-19.

“This gives a great example of partnerships that have taken place to make this happen. It takes the government, whether the Philippines or the United States. It takes international development finance partners like ADB. It takes companies like Pfizer to provide safe and very effective vaccines,” Variava said.

“By working together with all of us, we can make a huge difference in the lives of the people of the Philippines and bring improvements to their lives, education, and economy,” she added.

Pfizer representative Eddie Reyes reaffirmed the company’s support to the Philippines’ COVID-19 vaccination program.

“We are in solidarity with all other countries around the world in helping and supporting different countries to put an end to this pandemic. We are very happy to be part of the suppliers to help bring in at least a hundred million doses,” Reyes said.

According to Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Kelly Bird, this latest milestone in the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program will help “restore consumer and business confidence and a safe reopening of the economy.”

“We are very happy with the progress of our loan. We have committed 98% of the loan for financing vaccines and all vaccines under the loan must be delivered by the end of this year,” said Bird.

ADB financed the Philippine government’s procurement of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines through a multilateral loan worth USD 400 million.

Apart from the ADB, the Philippine vaccine procurement is also being financed by multilateral loans from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Galvez thanked these institutions and gave the assurance that the Philippine government will continue to partner with them in securing the country’s vaccine supply for next year.

More than 105.65 million doses of the country’s vaccine supply for 2021 were secured through multilateral financing through ADB, World Bank, and AIIB.

At least 50M doses more will arrive this year

Galvez said the Philippines expects to receive at least 50 to 60 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in the remaining two months of the year.

He said the COVAX facility has also confirmed the delivery of an additional 10 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in December and January 2022.

Around 45 to 50 million doses of procured vaccines from different manufacturers will also be delivered from November to December.

The United States has also confirmed an additional donation of two million doses to be made through the COVAX facility.

“We are expecting the arrival of two million [doses] more vaccines next week that will bring the donations through the COVAX facility to 26 million [doses] and about 18 million of those will be from direct donations from the United States,” said Variava.

Galvez said that vaccine donations from partner countries are expected to arrive in the coming days.

The Philippines has secured a total of 193 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for 2021. Galvez said the rest of the shipments will be delivered in the first quarter of 2022.

Scaled up vaccination in provinces

The vaccine czar said that with the steady arrival of bigger vaccine shipments to the country, the national government is urging local government units across the country to be ‘creative and flexible’ in their respective vaccination rollouts.

“We look forward to seeing each and every LGU in the country hitting their daily jab targets in the days ahead, as we collectively work towards reaching and sustaining the 1.5 million jab rate that we hope to achieve within this quarter,” said Galvez.

He shared that the vaccine supplies stored in national warehouses currently stand at around eight million doses, while those deployed and stored in regional warehouses across the country have reached 30 million doses.

These vaccines, he said, are ready to be distributed to various implementing units in the regions.

The NTF has also directed LGUs to conduct house-to-house vaccinations in their localities to ramp up their daily vaccination rates.

“We look forward to in the next few days, by November, we will be able to reduce our storage inventory to at least 20 million doses,” Galvez said.

The latest shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will be equally distributed to all regions, and will be allocated for the vaccination of the pediatric sector or those aged 12 to 17 years old.

Meanwhile, the Astrazeneca jabs donated by Japan have been allocated as booster shots for healthcare workers.

The government aims to complete the vaccination of more than 12.7 million individuals under the 12 to 17 years age group by the end of the year.

Galvez said 157 hospital and non-hospital based vaccination sites will be used for the inoculation of this age group, adding the nationwide rollout for the pediatric vaccination will kick off on November 3.

He said the administration of booster shots to healthcare workers may begin by mid-November pending the amendment of the Emergency Use Authorization of the vaccines, as well as the recommendation from the World Health Organization. END