National Task Force Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon said Wednesday the government needs to vaccinate 250,000 to 300,000 people per day to meet its goal of vaccinating 50 million Filipinos this year.
“We have a goal of inoculating 50 million Filipinos this year. We believe we can hit the target of 250,000-300,000 inoculations per day when the bulk of vaccines arrive,” Dizon said in an interview with ANC.
“[Vaccinating] 250,000 to 300,000 plus thousand per day is the target, but it is very difficult to measure the steady state of our inoculation of this point since the limited supply is still being distributed to hospitals across the country,” he added.
The Philippines has so far received at least 1.12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines Sinovac and AstraZeneca through the global effort COVAX facility.
Vaccine czar Galvez earlier said that another one million doses of Sinovac, worth P700 million will arrive on March 21.
The Philippines is the last country in Southeast Asia to roll out its COVID-19 vaccination program which started on March 1.
Galvez said at least 44,000 Filipinos have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
He initially said that the Philippines can vaccinate 70 million people this year in a best-case scenario.
Gov’t needs to vaccinate at least 250K people per day to meet target – Dizon
Meanwhile, the Philippines and Indian firm Bharat Biotech are negotiating for the government to secure at least 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Shambhu Kumaran on Wednesday.
Kumaran said the government is in talks with Bharat Biotech as it waits for its emergency use authorization (EUA) for Covaxin from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“There are ongoing conversations for a supply for Covaxin which can range anywhere from 8 million doses upwards. I don’t think we are in a position to be signing anything yet,” he said in an ANC interview.
The ambassador clarified that formal negotiations have not yet begun as Bharat Biotech only submitted its Phase 3 clinical trial data to the FDA on March 9.
“The company has had one or two presentations with the FDA, but the commercial negotiations, which involve signing of a term sheet and then eventually moving to a contract, those are still pending,” he said.