117,000 Pfizer doses from COVAX set to arrive in April — official
MANILA, Philippines — Some 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, obtained through the COVAX Facility, may arrive in the Philippines next month, an official said Wednesday.
Pfizer-BioNTech doses from the World Health Organization-led vaccine sharing initiative were supposed to arrive in mid-February but the delivery faced delays. Officials attribute the delays to the absence of an indemnification program.
“The WHO has committed that the 117,000 doses of Pfizer will arrive this April. This is a big deal especially for our healthcare workers who are our priority [for vaccinations] from April to May,” Vince Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, said in Filipino during a briefing.
Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO country representative, said Pfizer-BioNTech shots are expected to arrive in late March or April.
“We understand now that almost all of the criteria required by the company have been addressed by the Philippine government. So we expect it to happen either late March or in April,” Abeyasinghe said Tuesday.
After several delays, the country began its COVID-19 vaccination drive last week, with health workers prioritized to receive shots. So far, the country has over 1.1 million doses of vaccine developed by Sinovac and AstraZeneca, which were obtained as donations from China and COVAX facility.
More than a week after receiving the donations, only around 44,000 doses had been administered.
The government needs to inoculate 250,000 to 300,000 people every day to meet its target of vaccinating 50 million Filipinos this year, Dizon also said. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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