Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Thursday additional 2.2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX facility would be delivered before the end of May.
“‘Yung next na delivery ng ating Pfizer (Our next Pfizer delivery), more or less 2.2 million [doses], I was informed yesterday is before the end of the month,” he said during a symbolic vaccination ceremony at the Makati Medical Center.
Authorities are now conducting a test run for the transport of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, he added.
“Meron kaming arrangement with UNICEF na diretso na kaagad sa Davao, diretso na kaagad sa Cebu, diretso na sa mga areas na paglalagakan natin ng Pfizer para wala po tayong double handling,” he said.
(We have an arrangement with UNICEF for the vaccines to be brought straight to Davao, Cebu, and other areas to avoid double handling.)
“‘Wag po kayong mag-alala, since February pa kami nagre-rehearse dito sa Pfizer (Don’t worry, we’ve been rehearsing since February) and we don’t see any problem.”
Meanwhile, the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine began this Wednesday in some cities in Metro Manila.
The vaccines were first distributed in Metro Manila, Cebu City, Davao City, and Quirino province because they have the capacity for cold storage.
One of the first cities to receive it was San Juan, which received 11,700 doses on Tuesday.
2.2M more Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines arriving before end-May: Galvez
According to Mayor Francis Zamora, the vaccines were immediately directed to the rented ultra-low freezer.
Along with Pfizer’s newly arrived doses, San Juan also has an additional 12,000 doses of AstraZeneca, which should be consumed by July.
According to Zamora, due to the new supplies, it is expected that up to 2,000 residents can be vaccinated per day.
In Makati, some residents were also convinced to get vaccinated when there was probably already a supply of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
Makati received more than 5,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday.
According to Mayor Abby Binay, it seems that they now have more vaccines than those who are vaccinated because only a few are registering online.
But the mayor hopes that the vaccine acceptance rate will also increase due to the arrival of new vaccine supplies.
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