Private sector awaits last batch of AstraZeneca jabs

MANILA, Philippines — Some four million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to be delivered this month to complete the 9.8 million total doses of COVID-19 vaccines procured under Go Negosyo’s “A Dose of Hope” program.

Expected to welcome the last batch are Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., AstraZeneca country president Lotis Ramin and officials from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) and the Department of Health (DOH).

“We express our utmost gratitude to AstraZeneca for fulfilling its commitment to deliver almost 17 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Go Negosyo. Without their help, the private sector’s vaccination program would not have succeeded,” Concepcion said.

Through Go Negosyo’s initiative, the private sector and local government units (LGUs) entered into a tripartite agreements with AstraZeneca for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines under its “A Dose of Hope” program.

The COVID-19 shots provided by AstraZeneca were used to inoculate private sector workers, providing them with ample protection as the country reopened its economy.

“With the arrival of additional shots, we will have enough supply to complete the vaccination of private sector workers. We can also use these to start providing our workers with booster shots while we work on another agreement with AstraZeneca for additional supply,” Concepcion said.

The Go Negosyo founder said he organized a meeting between AstraZeneca and more than 350 private companies for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines as booster shots for private sector workers starting next year.

Concepcion said boosters form part of the strategy to make the pandemic endemic. “COVID will not completely disappear. Instead, it must become a part of life,” he said.

OCTA Research fellow Fr. Nick Austriaco said the demographics may become a factor in an Omicron outbreak in the Philippines. Should it happen, this would not likely overwhelm the country’s health care system.

Concepcion believes it may be time to stop looking at daily new case counts and panicking over the mild cases. “When COVID becomes endemic, we will have built a wall of protection through vaccinations, we will know how to avoid catching it and we will know how to treat it,” Concepcion said. “That is why our goal for 2022 must be to make the pandemic endemic.”

More jabs arrive

A batch of 2,005,300 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines procured by the private sector arrived yesterday morning at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 on Korean Air flight KE 621.

Meanwhile, some 367,380 government-procured Pfizer vaccines was expected last night via Air Hong Kong, while a total of 4,569,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines procured by the private sector also set to arrive today.

First to be delivered are 1,357,300 Moderna doses on Korean Air flight KE 345, followed by 1,981,500 AstraZeneca vaccines on Korean Air flight KE 621 and lastly, 1,230,800 Moderna jabs on Korean Air flight KE 623.