Galvez-Dizon tandem secures 148M anti-COVID vaccines this year

As of Monday (May 24), a total of 3,718,308 individuals nationwide had already received first or second doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines Sinovac, Aztra Zeneca and Pfizer. They belong to priority groups A1 (health care workers), A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities).

Also, vaccinations went as high as 229,769 per day in just five days, nearly doubling the previous record 120,529 on May 15. The national government hopes to achieve more than 500,000 daily vaccinations when the bulk of vaccine supplies arrive in the coming months.

Total vaccine supply inventory as of today is at 8,279,050 doses and projected to increase by 15 million to 20 million doses per month during the third quarter or July when bulk shipments from Covax facility (2.2 million Pfizer-Biontech and 2 million Astra Zeneca) plus another 2 million doses from Russia’s Sputnik V are on hand.

Moderna will initially deliver 200,000 doses for government and 50,000 doses for the private sector next month. Another 1.3 million Astra Zeneca doses were purchased by the private sector while the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. procured 4.5 million Sinovac doses.

By June, next to be vaccinated are economic and government front-liners (A4) and indigent communities (A5). President Duterte has specifically reserved the much desired Pfizer-Biontech vaccines only for the poor people.

Government’s target is achieving “herd immunity” in Metro Manila, the epidemic center, by November this year, which means inoculating more than 9 million out of a total of 12 million residents. This strategy was proven very effective in medical studies and has started reopening societies in England, Italy and some states in America. Their new cases, hospitalizations and even death numbers have plummeted. It was also proven that complete vaccination protects against new COVID mutations (Indian variants).

And here, I personally commend the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 and its national vaccination program for successfully crafting and implementing our pandemic exit strategy. It was a job well done despite the monstrous challenges at the start. It is not easy to negotiate with seven or eight international suppliers at the time when new cases are surging and global vaccines are unavailable. But chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. with his vice chair Vince Dizon succeeded in securing for this year a total of 148 million doses against our 114-million population, implying therefore that everybody will get vaccinated. And the best thing is that all of these are free, courtesy of government funds.

Gen. Galvez and  Dizon  are almost everywhere since negotiations started last year until the vaccine rollout in March. They have been talking with governments of India, Russia, China, USA, and their different vaccine manufacturers including those under WHO’s COVAX facility.

These combinations of government-to-government agreements, negotiating for lower prices and obtaining large volumes from different manufacturers are very difficult procurement strategies especially in a time of worldwide panic and vaccine patriotism by powerful nations. Also noteworthy are the signing of multiple tripartite agreements between the national government thru the NTF and LGUs, private companies and their different vaccine manufacturers.

These continuous partnerships of the national and local government with the business community are praiseworthy as it helps our nation build its own vaccine self-sufficiency and probably manufacture vaccines here in the future. Aside from modernizing and professionalizing our health care system, the need to accelerate our economic recovery is top priority. The earlier we return to our normal life the better.