Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Friday the Philippines would buy three million doses of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine from Russia.
In a news conference at the Palace, Galvez said the purchase would be for April.
Sputnik V is a two-dose vaccine, making the first batch of orders enough to vaccinate 1.5 million individuals.
The Gamaleya Research Institute’s coronavirus disease vaccine has been granted emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration, the agency confirmed Friday.
Filipinos can now be given the COVID-19 Sputnik V vaccine of Gamaleya once it arrives in the country. However, the vaccine could not be given to 17-year-olds and under, FDA director-general Eric Domingo said earlier.
“[Sputnik V, AstraZeneca] and also Pfizer [are safe for senior citizens]… Pfizer is for 16 and above, AstraZeneca is for 18 and above and Sputnik is for 18 and above,” said Domingo at a press briefing.
“It is decided that all conditions for an EUA are present and the benefits of using the vaccine outweigh the potential risk.”
PH to order 3M doses of Sputnik V for April – Galvez
Sputnik V is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine that can be given to Filipinos now with a COVID-19 public health emergency. The other three are from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac Biotech.
The Russian vaccine is said to have a 91.6% efficacy rate against COVID-19, something that will provide protection against severe forms of such disease. The government plans to get up to 10 million doses of Sputnik V.
The Philippines began its vaccination rollout this month, administering Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines to health workers.
As of March 18, more than 240,000 or 14 percent of the 1.7 million health workers have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the Philippines.
“Talagang medyo binabagalan natin ng kaunti dahil ‘yung napag-usapan po natin na mayroon adverse effects. Sa ngayon mayroon tayong accommodated na more or less 5,000 adverse effects, pero mga normal lang po, mga lagnat, parang lalagnatin,” said Galvez.
Only 1,125,600 COVID-19 vaccine doses are currently in the country and have been delivered to implementing sites.
But there are still private hospitals that do not receive the allocation, according to the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines.