11.6 million jabs to arrive in July – Galvez

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is expected to receive as many as 11.6 million doses of COVID-19 shots next month as wealthy nations vowed to donate surplus vaccines to developing and poor countries, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.

Galvez said rich countries have reached an “inflection point” where vaccine supplies are higher than demand. “The implication of this is that many developing and poor countries will receive vaccines through the COVAX (Facility),” Galvez said during a meeting of the government’s pandemic task force last Monday.

For July, the Philippines is expecting the arrival of at least 4.5 million doses from Chinese drug maker Sinovac, but Galvez said negotiations are ongoing to increase the deliveries to 5.5 million doses.

Four million doses will come from the COVAX Facility, one million doses from American firm Moderna, 1.7 million doses from AstraZeneca’s plant in Thailand and as many as one million doses of Russia-made vaccine Sputnik V may also be delivered next month.

“So in July, we expect to receive 11,670,000 doses,” Galvez said.

For the month of June, the Philippines received 4,376,820 doses and is expected to get 6.4 million more doses, including one million Sinovac doses ordered by a Chinese-Filipino business group.

If the scheduled deliveries arrive on time, the country would have as many as 204 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of the year, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said during a hearing of the Senate committee of the whole.

“The government is assured of at least 149.83 million doses of vaccines through binding term sheets and supply agreements backed by our foreign loans, our regular budget and donations from other countries and the COVAX Facility,” Dominguez told the committee.

“This will bring our indicative total of vaccines to about 174.7 million doses. Adding those in the pipeline, the vaccine deliveries could reach more than 204 million doses this year,” Dominguez said.

Galvez added that government has already signed supply agreements with Sinovac for 26 million doses; Gamaleya Institute for Sputnik V vaccines (20 million doses); the US-based Moderna (20 million) and the British-Swedish AstraZeneca (17 million).

Japan will donate AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines, Ambassador Kazuhiko Koshikawa said yesterday.

“Glad to be the bearer of good news today! Japan will donate AstraZeneca vaccines to the Philippines, and we’ll make sure to deliver them at the soonest possible time so no one gets left behind during this pandemic,” Koshikawa tweeted. – Paolo Romero, Pia Lee-Brago, Czeriza Valencia