Govt expects to receive over 2M vaccines in March — task force exec

THE government is expecting to receive more than 2 million doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines this March.

National Task Force against Covid-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vivencio “Vince” Dizon made the statement during the Laging Handa public briefing on Wednesday.

NTF Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. had said the country is set to receive this month 1.4 million vaccines from China.

“Nangako po ang World Health Organization (WHO) na darating din po ang susunod na mga tranches ng AstraZeneca na manggagaling sa Covax facility (The World Health Organization (WHO) promised to deliver the next tranches of AstraZeneca vaccines from the Covax facility).”

“Kaya umaasa po tayo na mas marami sa 1.4 million na Sinovac ang matatanggap natin ngayong buwan ng Marso (That’s why we are hoping to receive more than 1.4 million Sinovac vaccines this March).”

“Hopefully po umabot tayo ng mahigit 2 million ngayong March (Hopefully, it would reach 2 million this March),” Dizon said.

President Rodrigo Duterte had said he will consider placing the entire country under most lenient modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) to further reopen the economy once the Philippines gets at least 2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines as he pointed out that Filipinos will suffer if the economy will not be reopened.

Metro Manila and nine other areas are under general community quarantine (GCQ) while the rest of the country are under MGCQ this March.

Meanwhile, the country has received a total of 1,125,600 vaccine doses so far, 600,000 of which are from Sinovac while 525,600 vaccine doses are from AstraZeneca.

According to Dizon, all the first doses of the Sinovac vaccines and around half of AstraZeneca vaccines have been dispatched.

The country needs 3.4 million vaccine doses for the inoculation of some 1.7 million medical frontliners and some 140 million vaccines to inoculate its target — 70 million Filipinos.

According to Dizon, the government is targeting to finish by mid-year, or June the inoculation of medical workers and senior citizens.

Following this, the vaccination of the general population will follow, he said.