The Philippines might face a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine supply during Q1 and Q2 of 2021, according to Galvez.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said on Monday night that the Philippines might face a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine supply during the first and second quarter of the year.
This, as most of the Western COVID-19 vaccines were being used in the United States and Europe. However, Galvez was confident that the Philippines would still have enough supply for this year in order to meet the Philippine government’s vaccination program.
“Sa first quarter, second quarter, magkakahirapan pa rin po tayo dahil kasi ‘yong karamihan ng mga western vaccines ay ginagamit po ng mga tiga Europe at America. Kung titingnan po natin ‘yong supply and demand sa 2021, may possibility po na ‘yong ating vaccination program ay makakaya po natin sa 2021,” Galvez said in a televised briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night.
The country had already allocated PHP 73.2 billion for the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccines — PHP 20 billion from domestic sources, PHP 40 billion from multilateral agencies, and PHP 13.2 billion from bilateral agreements.
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In addition, the Philippines aimed to vaccinate 50 to 70 million individuals within this year and an estimated 50,000 were expected to be vaccinated this month.
The priority groups include indigent senior citizens, frontline health workers, the rest of the indigent population, and uniformed personnel.
Earlier, Galvez said that the COVID-19 vaccine jointly manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech could be the first that would be used against the coronavirus disease in the Philippines as the COVAX Facility would have an early roll-out of the said brand.
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