
MANILA – National Task Force Against Covid-19 stated that the 703,170 doses of government-purchased Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that arrived on Wednesday night would be allocated to the several regions with high coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.
Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., NTF Against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar, declared that regions that have not received a Pfizer vaccine would also acquire a portion of the recent delivery.
“Also, those areas that have never been reached by Pfizer because we want all the municipalities can have that sort of dry run so that when the majority of the Pfizer will come by October — more or less of which will be delivered each month during October, November, December — they are already knowledgeable on how to handle critical supplies like the vaccine of Pfizer,” he said in an interview with reporters shortly after the vaccine arrival Wednesday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City.
Pfizer vaccine needs a subzero storage facility, delicate handling logistics, and is also susceptible to spoilage.
Galvez stated that the majority of the vaccine will be distributed to regions with high Covid-19 instances such as Regions 4-A (Calabarzon), 3 (Central Luzon), 1 (Ilocos), 2 (Cagayan Valley), 7 (Central Visayas), 11 (Davao), 6 (Western Visayas) and 9 (Zamboanga).
He commended the US government, specifically US Embassy Charges d’Affaires John Law, for assisting the Philippines in obtaining much needed vaccine supply.
“First of all we would like to thank Pfizer for delivering a new supply more than 700,000 plus and we would like to thank the US government for being faithful of really assisting us to have that access and I also want to thank John Law for never missing to be here to receive our deliveries that only represents the strong alliance between the US and the Philippines and the friendship we had since we have have our alliance with the US,” he added.
The government anticipates that 25 million vaccine shots will arrive this month from various sources.
Of the latest vaccine shipment, 600,210 arrived via Air HongKong flight LD456 while 51,480 doses arrived in Cebu at 6:35 pm via LD45. The remaining 51,480 doses is expected to arrive in Davao Thursday via Philippine Airlines flight PR1811.
Law stated that their government is willing to assist the Philippines in the fight against the pandemic.
“Just like what Secretary Galvez said every time you see a delivery of these vaccines where hundreds of millions of vaccines are coming in, that means hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in a few days are going to be better protected against this pandemic,” he added.
“Secretary Galvez mentioned that we’re allies, the American and Filipino people, we’re also friends, so we continue to do all that we possibly can, working with Secretary Galvez and his team to help the Philippines confront this pandemic,” he added.