MANILA, Philippines — The health department on Wednesday said there is no final date yet on the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines in the country, a clarification against the administration's own pronouncement that the jabs could be here by February 15.
Palace spokesperson Harry Roque earlier this week said government is ready to begin its vaccination drive by the said date with the doses from the COVAX facility, only later on to say that there is nothing sure so far.
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In a briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the February 15 was a date given by the vaccine manufacturers of the global initiative.
"The COVAX facility initially told us na by the second or third week of February," she said. "'Pag sinabi nating indicative, 'yan po 'yung mga tentative schedule pa lang. Wala pa po tayong confirmed dates."
(When we say indicative, those are still tentative schedules so far. We don't have confirmed dates yet.)
Still, the senior health official said inoculation would begin two to three days once the doses are delivered, with health workers first to receive the vaccines under government's priority list.
According to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., doses from the COVAX facility would include millions from AstraZeneca and some 117,000 from Pfizer, candidate vaccines which have been cleared for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration.
Officials also held a simulation exercise on Tuesday for the jabs' arrival in a bid to show readiness in undertaking a giant effort of vaccination 50 to 70 million in 2021 alone.
Commenting on the move, Vergeire said they encountered "bottlenecks", which she said they had already expected and eventually resolved.
"Yesterday, the simulation was ongoing and transport vehicles were passing through [South Luzon Expressway], and [noong] papunta na sa [Research Institute for Tropical Medicine], biglang mayroong aksidenteng malaki so the transport vehicles had to go through another route," she said.
(As the transport vehicles were passing there was a huge accident so they had to go throug another route.)
President Rodrigo Duterte had significantly pinned his hopes on the vaccines over the course of the health crisis, but his administration has faced criticisms in the bid to secure doses, particularly that it was late into engaging in talks with drugmakers as well as its preference for the Chinese-made Sinovac.