20 million Moderna shots arriving in 1st half – Locsin

MANILA, Philippines — Apart from COVID-19 vaccines from China and the United Kingdom, the Philippines also expects to receive shots from United States-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm Moderna in the first half of the year, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. confirmed over the weekend.

Locsin said Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez assured him that Moderna vaccines would arrive in the first half of the year.

“Just talked to Babe in DC. Definitely, Moderna coming in the first half, 20,000,000 doses. We’ll release the timeline soon,” Locsin posted on Twitter last Saturday.

“By the time Moderna gets here, it’ll have addressed COVID variants,” he added.

The government is also working to secure Novavax shots from India, according to the foreign affairs chief.

“Trying to get Novavax from India to fill huge gaps in world orders of better known vaccines. Will appeal if at all possible and won’t screw up well-crafted regional distribution plans,” he said in a separate Twitter post yesterday.

In an interview in December last year, Locsin said the Philippines has been assured of at least 30 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, Covovax.

Covovax is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, in partnership with the American firm Novavax.

A batch of Sinovac’s CoronaVac donated by China arrived in the country yesterday afternoon, becoming the country’s first COVID-19 vaccines.

Around 525,600 doses of serums from UK’s AstraZeneca are also expected to arrive in the country shortly after another slight delay.