US to donate up to 1-M COVID-19 vaccines by July

Up to 800,000 to 1 million doses of coronavirus disease vaccine (COVID-19) donated by the United States are expected to be received by the Philippines in July.

He said the Philippines would prioritize the countries that will receive 55 million COVID-19 vaccines donated by their government.

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This is in addition to what the Philippines will receive from the half-million COVID-19 vaccines donated by the United States to various countries.

“Doon sa 80 million na iyon, we’re going to get something like close to 800 (thousand) to one million na doses, either Moderna or AstraZeneca, from their stockpile,” said Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez.

The report added roughly 75% of the 55 million doses are allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa through the COVAX international vaccine-sharing program.

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The plan fulfills President Joe Biden’s commitment to share 80 million US-made vaccines with countries worldwide. The President sketched out his priorities for the first 25 million doses from that pledge earlier this month.

Meanwhile, about 4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to be received before the end of June.

US to donate up to 1-M COVID-19 vaccines by July

This includes 1.5 million Sinovac doses delivered on Thursday, 250,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, and over 2 million AstraZeneca doses donated through vaccine sharing facility COVAX.

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Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. assured that these vaccines would be brought to local governments as COVID-19 cases are high and supply is declining.

“It is our promise in the national government that we will provide the local government and our people the vaccines that you need to achieve population protection and herd immunity,” said Galvez.

It is also expected that in the last three months of 2021, the vaccination of minors in the Philippines will begin when the 40 million Pfizer vaccine doses purchased by the government arrive.

“Ang first batch ng 7.5 million ay sa third quarter, tapos ‘yung batch 2 naman na 32.5 million doses ay fourth quarter. So malamang, end of the year, and beginning of next year pa natin makikita kung babakunahan itong ating teenagers,” said Department of Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje.

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