The Philippines expects to receive 16 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines this month, of which more than 3 million have already arrived in the last few days, an official said Sunday.
“On July 14, Sinovac doses will arrive to continue vaccination efforts in the NCR Plus 8 areas," Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, chief of the national vaccination operations center, said in an interview on Dobol B TV.
She said 90 percent of the vaccines would go to NCR Plus 8 — the National Capital Region, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Calabarzon, Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite, and Rizal, where the supply has run out.
The country has so far fully inoculated only 4.5 percent or 3.2 million of its 70 million target population.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who also co-chairs the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), told ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo in a separate interview that by the end of July, the country would have already received some 32 million or 33 million vaccine doses in total since the first delivery on Feb. 28.
As of July 9, Nograles said, 20.6 million doses have already been delivered to the Philippines, with the Russian Sputnik V vaccines being the last to arrive.
Of the total, more than 10.4 million doses were government-procured, 7 million doses were sourced from the COVAX facility organized by the World Health Organization, more than 2 million doses came from bilateral donations, while the rest were initial deliveries of does procured by local government units and the private sector, the National Task Force against COVID-19 said.
“We expect 16 million for the month of July alone,” Nograles said in Filipino.
The national government has also included the cities of Bacolod, Iloilo, Cagayan De Oro, Baguio, Zamboanga, Dumaguete, Tuguegarao, General Santos, Naga, and Legazpi in the list of priority areas.
The latest batch to arrive in the country are 37,800 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, received on Saturday night. On Friday night, 132,200 doses of the same brand were also delivered.
More than 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, from the COVAX facility, were received as well on Friday, while 1 million doses donated by Japan arrived late Thursday.
Among the supplies expected to arrive this month are those from Johnson & Johnson from the sharing agreement with the United States and COVAX, Moderna, Pfizer, and Sinovac.
Nograles said that for August, around 14 million doses are expected to arrive.
As of July 7, the Philippines has administered 12.4 million doses, of which nearly 9.4 million are first doses, and the remaining more than 3 million are second doses.
“We are predicting that smaller localities in the National Capital Region will already inoculate 70 percent of their population,” Nograles said in Filipino. “Like San Juan City, because of its relatively smaller population, it's easy to reach 70 percent. The vaccine rollout in all NCR cities is quite fast.”
He said that the November target of inoculating 70 percent of the country's population is doable.
On July 8, the donated 1,124,100 AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrived.
Also, of the 2.028 million AstraZeneca doses from COVAX facility, 1.5 million were used for the second dose, while 500,000 doses will be used for the first dose.
The Philippines also received more than 2 million AstraZeneca shots on July 9.
Meanwhile, the chief of the national Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) said a study on mixing different brands of COVID-19 vaccines has been pushed back by delayed deliveries of the jabs.
Dr. Nina Gloriani, chairperson of the Department of Science and Technology's VEP, said the current supply of vaccines will be prioritized for the vaccination of Filipinos.
“The study has not started yet because vaccine supplies are insufficient. Vaccine supplies were not delivered on time so of course we will first prioritize inoculation of individuals,” Gloriani said in Filipino, in an interview on Dobol B TV.
The DOST was hoping to begin the study by June, but it has yet to obtain approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board.
Gloriani said vaccine experts are looking into studies from abroad, noting that some have been done on mixing AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
The University of Oxford had said that a stronger immune response against the severe respiratory disease was generated by those who received mixed AstraZeneca-Pfizer doses.
Gloriani said they are still looking into other results of mixing vaccines from other countries. She said DOST will be finishing its own study on mixing vaccines by September or October despite the delays.
Also on Sunday, BHW party-list Rep. Angelica Natasha Co urged the government to deploy some single-shot vaccines at strategic bus terminals in Metro Manila and seaports in the Visayas and Mindanao.
She welcomed the arrival of the single-dose COVID vaccines of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the vaccines unit of Johnson & Johnson, this month.
“My humble suggestion is that some of these Janssen vaccines be jabbed into the arms of willing commuters and personnel of transport companies especially those whose buses and ships converge at NCR hubs and at the Batangas port,” she said.
“Please also include some strategic transport hubs in Visayas and Mindanao,” she added.
This could reduce the spread of COVID to, from and between the provinces linked by commuter transport routes, she said.
“A single shot Janssen vaccine is better for travelers. It can be done, for example, at least two hours before taking a provincial ride or a ship,” she said.