The Philippines has breached the 200-million mark of Covid-19 vaccine doses deliveries after it received two shipments earlier this week – the 567,000 doses of Moderna vaccines donated by Germany, and the 1.8 million Pfizer jabs procured by the government.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the two new shipments have enabled to country to register 202,660,355 doses of vaccine jabs received.
“On behalf of the National Task Force against Covid-19 and the Vaccine Cluster, I am pleased to inform the Filipino people that vaccine deliveries to the country have now breached the 200 million mark,” Galvez said in a statement.
The national vaccine tracker indicates that 105,412,678 doses have already been administered nationwide, with 47,169,454 as second doses and 1,376,441 as booster or additional shots. By year end, vaccine doses received are expected to reach 217.34 million, “more than enough to completely inoculate at least 100 million Filipinos nationwide, including the administration of booster shots for qualified individuals,” he added.
Galvez conveyed his gratitude to all those who have supported the country’s efforts to secure safe, effective, and sufficient Covid-19 vaccines.
“From the esteemed members of our Vaccine Expert Panel for choosing the best vaccines to be included in our portfolio; to our multilateral partners which include the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for ensuring our efficient and transparent vaccine procurement; to the various vaccine manufacturers that made sure small and developing countries like the Philippines received a fair share of their production; to the World Health Organization and all donor countries — United States and EU (European Union) member nations such as Germany, France, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and Sweden; and various global organizations for supporting the COVAX-GAVI initiative that guaranteed our country equitable access to life-saving doses; to our bilateral partners such as China, Japan, UK, UAE, Brunei, Russia, Australia, Poland, South Korea, and Argentina which directly shipped their donations to the Philippines; and to our ever reliable private sector partners and local government units for pooling their resources to allow the country to purchase more vaccines, thank you most sincerely,” Galvez said.
German Embassy acting deputy head of mission Alexander Schmidt, personally joined Galvez in witnessing the arrival of sixth delivery of Moderna vaccines from Germany via the WHO COVAX facility.
Schmidt said by the end of the year, Germany would have donated 100 million doses to the Philippines and other countries.
“2021 was a difficult year for all of us. We have seen that the fight against the virus is not a short sprint but rather a marathon but the successful vaccination campaign is the best chance that we have and we need to work together in this,” he said.
Galvez and Schmidt were joined by United Nations Children’s Fund deputy representative for operations Thomas Meyerer, Alicia Peña of the European Union, Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Jaime Ledda, and Health Undersecretary Ma. Carolina Vidal-Taiño.