After delayed arrival in the country in mid-February, Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive this May.
According to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, 1.3 million doses of Pfizer vaccines from the COVAX Facility of the World Health Organization will be delivered to the country this May.
It is also possible that the first 193,000 doses arrived on Tuesday.
“‘Yon po ang parang tinatawag nating mini rollout ng Pfizer para maging gamay na po natin,” said Galvez.
The temperature requirement of Pfizer vaccines is colder compared to the 3 vaccines that arrived in the country earlier.
The efficacy rate of the Pfizer vaccine is high at 94.7 percent.
“‘Yong ating mga health care workers ‘yon nga po ‘yong nakita natin na mayroon po tayong more or less 20 percent to 30 percent na hindi pa nagpabakuna dahil kasi parang hinihintay po nila ‘yong Pfizer at saka Moderna,” said Galvez.
“Once na ‘yong Pfizer dumating priority po talaga ‘yong health care workers natin,” he said.
The first batch of the vaccine will reportedly be delivered to Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao.
One to 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine will be delivered to the country this May.
Pfizer vaccines expected to arrive next week
On Friday, an additional 1.5 million doses of Sinovac are scheduled to arrive.
Amid the arrival of vaccines, President Rodrigo Duterte instructed to ensure that there is no discrimination in the distribution of vaccine brands in various parts of the country.
Galvez assured that the president’s order will be followed.
Meanwhile, the Marikina city government purchased an additional 80,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Bharat Biotech of India.
The local government signed a tripartite agreement on Thursday and vaccines are expected to arrive in June or July.
In more than 2 months of vaccination in the Philippines, more than 320,000, or less than 1 percent of the target of 70 million Filipinos, have been vaccinated completely.
About 1.7 million received the first dose.
According to Galvez, the government’s plan also includes vaccinating those aged 17 and under.
But for now, reports of clinical trials being conducted for vaccination against COVID-19 for 12 to 17-year-olds are still pending.
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