The Philippines anticipates receiving approximately 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of October, according to the country's vaccine czar, who informed President Rodrigo Duterte during a press conference on Monday, September 20.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the country's vaccine czar, stated the country has achieved the highest weekly volume ever with the distribution of at least 9.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccines include 5 million doses from Sinovac, 2,774,400 doses from Pfizer (which consists of the COVAX facility), 961,000 doses from Moderna, 661,200 doses from AstraZeneca, and Sputnik V Component II from Russia, among other companies.
This brings the total number of vaccines available in the country to 64,942,000. According to Galvez, approximately 22 million additional doses are expected to arrive by the end of September or the first week of October.
The vaccine czar added, the country will also receive 5,626,650 doses of the second batch of Pfizer vaccine in the last week of September or the first week of October.
"We now have a more consistent supply from Sinovac, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and COVAX," said Galvez, who also serves as the chief implementer of the National Task Forces Against COVID-19.
In addition, the vaccine czar stated that the government would work with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to secure the single-dose Sputnik Light vaccines for the public.
So far, the government has given out 41,414,015 doses, with 22,853,606 people receiving the first dose and 18,560,409 receiving the full dose with a reported average daily dose of 405,669.
Galvez said in the briefing, the total number of persons who have been vaccinated accounts for 24.06 percent of the country's target population and 16.84 percent of the overall population. (PND)