Last May 8, 2021, The United Nations in the Philippines Resident Coordinator Gustavo Gonzales welcomed the delivery of more than 2 million doses of Astrazeneca vaccines from the COVAX facility, the international partnership that is established to ensure the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world.
Even with the scarce global supply, the Philippines is continuously negotiating with vaccine manufacturers to get additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The country is expecting additional doses of vaccines in the following months to help ramp up the speed of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program with the help of the COVAX facility. Here are some of the vaccines that are currently circulating in the Philippines as of May 2021.
Gamaleya
Russia commits to deliver the first doses of Gamaleya’s Sputnik V vaccine to the Philippines around April 2021. The Philippines and Russia are also negotiating regarding a plan to set up a production facility for Sputnik V vaccines in the Philippines. The first batch of Gamaleya’s vaccine, consisting of 15,000 doses, arrived on May 1, 2021.
Moderna
In early March 2021, the Philippine government secured 20 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine through a tripartite agreement with Moderna and the private sector-led by businessman Enrique Razon. The government ordered an additional 5 million doses in late March. The first batch of Moderna’s vaccine, consisting of 250,000 doses, is seen to arrive by June 15.
Oxford–AstraZeneca
Last March 4, 2021, a shipment of 487,200 Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX‘s facility arrived in the country. An additional shipment of 38,400 doses arrived in the country on March 7, totaling a number of 525,600 doses from COVAX’s facility. Last May 8, 2021, 2 million additional doses arrived in the country from COVAX’s facility.
Pfizer–BioNTech
The delivery of Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines to the Philippines has been subject to delays. Health Secretary Francisco Duque has been alleged to have “dropped the ball” on a Pfizer vaccine deal which could have secured 10 million doses by as early as January 2021. The first batch of the Pfizer vaccine, consisting of 193,050 doses through the COVAX facility, arrived on May 10.
Last May 10, The Philippines received the first 193,050 doses of donated Pfizer vaccines from the COVAX Facility that is led by WHO. The national government made sure to coordinate with the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), the UNICEF, US Embassy, and Pfizer Philippines.
Sinovac
The Philippines’ plans to secure 25 million doses from China’s Sinovac have also been subjected to scrutiny in Congress due to its reported efficacy rate. The Department of Health said that Sinovac’s vaccine satisfies the World Health Organization standards of at least 50 percent efficacy rate while the FDA pointed out that Sinovac is yet to publish an official and published scientific report on their vaccines efficacy rate and that the clinical trial for the vaccine is conducted in different countries and the efficacy rate per country will vary. Following the approval for emergency use authorization on February 22, the first batch of Sinovac vaccines, consisting of 600,000 doses, from China’s donation to the country arrived on February 28 and is now being circulated to local government units around the Philippines.