At least 20 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines the government procured will be used for children under the 12 to 15 years old age bracket, vaccine czar and National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. said.
Galvez made the announcement following the signing of the supply agreement for 40 million Pfizer doses to be delivered by the third and fourth quarter of the year.
The country will also receive its first 20 million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines on June 27, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Romualdez said.
“We will really have more than enough [doses] in the next couple of months – that is true. This time, the supply will continue unhampered,” Romualdez aid.
Of the 20 million Moderna doses, some 13 million will go to the government for distribution in places with high COVID-19 cases while the remaining 7 million will go to the private sector.
Galvez, for his part, said the original plan was to allocate as much as 25 million of the Pfizer jabs for 12 to 15 year olds.
“But considering that we are only opening up the vaccination for children like in Europe and also in the United States and Israel, we are anticipating that we have to program or we have to prepare for that,” Galvez said.
Once the government’s expert panel gives a go signal and guidelines have been issued, Galvez said the government would start vaccinating those in 12 to 15 year old age bracket.
As of June 19, the country has received a total of 14,205,870 doses of COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Sinovac, Sputnik, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca both through procurement and donations.
A total of 8,407,342 jabs have been administered nationwide as of Sunday, of which 6,253,400 were administered as first doses while 2,153,942 were given as second doses.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the government is working on a common digital ID with QR code to serve as proof of vaccination against COVID-19
“What we really want is a QR code. The digital vaccination ID card will be very important,” Nograles told ANC’s Headstart.
The Philippines is among several countries that have asked the World Health Organization to come up with a standard protocol for a digital “common vaccine passport.”
Romualdez, for his part, said the Philippines could adapt a system similar to New York’s Excelsior Pass, a government-issued vaccine passport in the US that assigns a QR code for every vaccinated individual.
“It is very convenient. Almost everybody has a cell phone so it is easy and very efficient,” he said.