MANILA – Malacañang said medical frontliners will be the first one to receive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine upon its arrival this month.
According to Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, all 117,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility will be given to 50,000 doctors because they are first in the priority list.
In an interview, he said the vaccination program for medical frontliners and those in the immediate priority groups will begin in the coming weeks or next month.
“So inaasahan natin na lahat nu’ng nasa paunang frontliners na mahigit-kumulang 1.4 million, ay mabibigyan dahil limang milyon mahigit ‘yung AstraZeneca na darating din also within the month,” he told DZBB.
According to him another batch of around five million doses of COVID-19 from AstraZeneca expected to arrive this month will be administered to medical frontliners.
British Ambassador Daniel Pruce on Friday said, the Philippines will receive nearly ten million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca. The country was identified by the Global Vaccine Alliance to be one of the first recipients of vaccines from the COVAX facility.
The COVAX facility is a global initiative that seeks equal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for countries across the globe.
The Department of Health previously said COVAX facility will provide vaccines to 20 percent of the country’s population but only those for 15 percent are free. The remaining five percent will be shouldered by the government according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.
“The decrease in the allocation of free vaccines from the COVAX facility would not be a problem since the government could still secure additional doses at a reasonable price,” Galvez said./PN
