Vaccine czar sees herd immunity vs COVID-19 by yearend

MANILA, Philippines — Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. yesterday expressed confidence that the Philippines will achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 within the year.

“We are very confident that the country will be able to achieve herd containment within this year with the help of the private sector, with the inoculation of 50 to 70 million Filipinos,” said Galvez, who also serves as National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar.

Business groups, at a virtual vaccine summit held and co-organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) yesterday, urged the government to allow them to purchase COVID-19 vaccines directly from accredited sources to speed up the country’s vaccination efforts.

The government has allowed all private companies to procure COVID-19 vaccines provided they enter into tripartite agreements with the national government and the manufacturers.

At the same virtual summit, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian said two million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines procured by the Philippine government from China are expected to arrive in May. So far, 3.5 million doses of Chinese vaccines have arrived, of which one million were donated.

“We are delighted to know that the Russian vaccine will arrive in Manila soon to help the Philippines fight against the pandemic,” Huang added.

Russian Federation Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlov, who was also a resource speaker at the summit, said Russia is willing to share with other countries its two new registered COVID-19 vaccines.

Galvez said that as of yesterday, the Philippine government has sealed agreements with five vaccine manufacturers, which will provide the country with a stable supply of COVID-19 jabs for this year.

“With support coming from the private sector and LGUs (local government units), the Philippines was able to gain access to larger vaccine volumes at a lower price,” he added.

He noted that for this year, the country is expecting the arrival of at least 148 million doses from seven manufacturers, the bulk of which would be arriving by mid-year.

The figure does not include the vaccines coming from the COVAX Facility, which has committed doses equivalent to 20 percent of the country’s population, Galvez said.

He noted that as of Thursday, the Philippines has already vaccinated 1,880,975 Filipinos, including health care workers, senior citizens and people with comorbidities.

The government aims to begin vaccinating the general population by August.

Sputnik vaccines arrive

The Philippines is expected to receive today its first shipment of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines from Russia, the country’s envoy to Moscow confirmed on Thursday.

Philippine Ambassador to Russia King Sorreta said 15,000 doses of Sputnik V are already on the way to Manila after a delay due to logistical issues was resolved.

The vaccines, part of the 485,000 doses for the country, were supposed to arrive last Wednesday.

“First shipment of Sputnik V vaccines (15,000 doses) left today, 29 April, from Moscow and should be in Manila by 1 May. More to come in the next weeks and months,” Sorreta said in a post on Facebook.

The Food and Drug Administration has given Sputnik V vaccine approval for emergency use in the country.

“Great working with the DOH, DFA, Special Envoy for Russia and the other members of the IATF to make this happen,” he said, referring to the Departments of Health and of Foreign Affairs and the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The 15,000 doses arriving today is considered a trial order and needs to be stored at -20°C.

Meanwhile, the Department of Finance said around half of the total funding extended by multilateral institutions for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines have already been obligated.

Finance Undersecretary Mark Dennis Joven said that between $600 million to $700 million have been obligated out of the total of $1.2 billion in loans granted by the Asian Development Bank, World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

As such, contracts have already been signed for the procurement of vaccines covering these amounts, he added during the Laging Handa briefing yesterday.

Some of the Sinovac vaccines that have arrived in the country were financed by multilateral funding sources.

“So we have a budget of $1.2 billion. There are other contracts that have not yet been signed but we have locked-in the supply already,” Joven said.

To date, the government has secured loans totaling $1.2 billion (around P58.5 billion) from multilateral banks, which include the $500 million for the Philippines’ COVID-19 Emergency Response Project-Additional Financing (PCERP-AF) from the World Bank, $400-million Second Health System Enhancement to Address and Limit COVID-19 (HEAL 2) under the Asia Pacific Vaccine Facility of the Asian Development Bank and $300-million HEAL 2 co-financing loan from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Funds would be drawn from these loan facilities only when pharmaceutical companies are prepared to deliver the vaccines to the Philippines.

“To distinguish, what has been drawn from the facilities to pay for vaccines was only $100 million,” he said.