Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez announced on Monday that he expects the COVID-19 crisis in India will have an impact on the supply of Novavax vaccines.
“We expect further constrictions ng ating global supply. Nakita po natin ang COVAX bumaba ang kanilang supply. Ang India they produce more than 2 billion doses for the COVAX and sa export. And with what’s happening to India right now, malaki po epekto. Ngayong ang supply na binili natin sa India baka magkaroon ng probable delay,” Galvez admitted.
For this reason, he recommends that there be a re-prioritization of areas that will receive the vaccine in the Philippines.
He said consider the “economic and social importance” of areas such as the National Capital Region and prioritize pouring the supply of vaccines.
“Ang recommendation ay mag-concentrate tayo sa areas na tinatamaan talaga… So kung titingnan natin instead na ma-concentrate sa 110 na population, we have to concentrate only to 83 million population kung makuha natin ang 70 percent or herd immunity… Malaki ang chances na ma-recover natin ang economy natin,” said Galvez.
Vaccine czar confident PH will achieve herd immunity
Galvez also defended against those who say the government is unable to achieve herd immunity in the Philippines.
He said that so far, 3.7 million vaccines have been deployed at vaccination sites, and 1,658,539 Filipinos have been vaccinated.
This May, he said, 1.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccines will arrive while the government is still working on the expected steady supply of Sputnik V vaccines.
On June, 2 million people are expected to come from the COVAX facility.
He said the government can afford to reach herd immunity.
“Ang target natin jabs per day, kailangan mayroon tayong 500,000 jabs per day. Kaya po natin iyan kasi ang atin pong jabs site ay 5,000. Kung 100 jabs per day so kaya po natin iyan. So ang atin pong target magkaroon po tayo ng 3 million jabs per week, pero ang requirement po every month mayroon tayong 15 million doses per month,” he said.
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