Govt unfazed by delay in vax delivery, sticks to 1.7-million HCW inoculation goal in March

NOT WITH STANDING DELAYS in the delivery of its negotiated procured vaccines, the government is sticking to its target of completing the vaccination of 1.7 million health-care workers (HCW) within the month for the much-awaited nationwide easing of quarantine restrictions, according to the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19.

President Duterte earlier said he may finally place the entire country under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ ) as recommended by government economic managers once the government finally secures the necessary vaccine doses for the said sector.

Supply issues

NTF Covid-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said they are anticipating to get 5.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to be delivered this month.

Of which, 3.5 million will come from the Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), and the other million come from Sinovac Biotech.

Also included is the recently delivered 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines, which was donated by the Chinese government.

Aside from the donated Sinovac vaccines, Galvez was unable to give the exact date when the 4.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the country due to supply issues.

“The arrival of the vaccines were delayed because of the global acute shortage [for Covid-19 vaccine supplies] and logistic challenges,” Galvez explained in an online news briefing on Monday.

Priority sector

THE 5.1 million doses of vaccines are expected to benefit over 2.5 million people since each of vaccinees will need two doses to develop immunity from Covid-19.

Galvez said they are aiming to use most of the available vaccines to inoculate 1.7 million HCWS nationwide. The remaining 800,000 doses will be used for other “government essential workers.”

The vaccine czar said this may prove challenging since only 200 to 300 of the HCWS have expressed interest to be immunized after the government started the deployment of the donated Sinovac vaccine on Monday at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila.

This as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that the Sinovac vaccine only has a efficacy rate of 50.4 percent when used on HCWS.

More HCWS are expected to avail of the Sinovac vaccine as the government continues its official vaccination drive in the next three days.

To recall, some members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) already used unregistered Covid-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical firm, Sinopharm last year.

Vaccine deployment

TO help build public confidence on the Sinovac vaccine, several government officials joined 100 people, who participated in the ceremonial launch of the vaccine deployment.

Among the said inoculated officials are Galvez, NTF Deputy Chief Implementer and testing czar Vivencio “Vince” Dizon, PGH Director Gerardo Legaspi, FDA Director General Eric Domingo, and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Benhur Abalos.

Those who got the first vaccine jab are scheduled to get their second shot four weeks after the first inoculation.

Galvez said they will be deploying the available Sinovac vaccine at the Vicente Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City on March 3, 2021, and in the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City on March 5, 2021.

“If we will have remaining doses after that, we will also give [vaccine doses] to Region 3, 4A, Baguio City, and other areas, which were hit by Covid,” Galvez said.

Moral obligation

GALVEZ appealed to HCWS and other Filipinos to avail of the free Covid-19 vaccines from the government so the country could finally ease quarantine restrictions.

Being inoculated for Covid-19, he said, is a “moral obligation” and that the best vaccine is not the ones with the highest efficacy, but what is readily available and approved by regulatory agencies.

“We will not able to achieve the new normal and our economy will not be able to recover until we are inoculated,” Galvez said.

On Sunday, Duterte said he may consider “reopening the economy,” which remain restricted by quarantine measures, if the government is able to secure 2 million stockpile of Covid-19 vaccine doses, or is able to immunize between 20 million and 40 million people.

Galvez said they may be able to raise the necessary stockpile demanded by the President by the second quarter of the year with the expected arrival of 26 million doses for the general population vaccination drive.