MANILA – Money will not be an issue next year as the government has already earmarked P45 billion to finance additional coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine purchases, Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
During a briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte late Saturday, Dominguez assured the Philippine government has enough budget to cover fresh vaccines for 2022.
Vaccine booster shots are also on the table, he added.
“For next year we have in the budget P45 billion for additional vaccinations. To assure you and the health community, we do have money for that,” he stated.
According to the Finance chief, the coronavirus shots secured for 2021– totaling 171 million doses – are “more than enough” to protect the entire adult population.
“I don’t think that we are good only after six months, I think we are good beyond 2022,” he told Duterte.
In a statement on Saturday, National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government expects to receive six million doses more of COVID-19 vaccines next week.
As of Friday, the country has 30.98 million doses of COVID vaccines.
The government also continues its discussion with pharmaceutical firms for an additional 26 million doses.
The pandemic task force is eyeing to administer at least 500,000 doses per day between July and August, and boost the figure to 750,000 doses in the last quarter of 2021.
Over 5.5 million Filipinos are now fully vaccinated against the virus, Galvez said, still far from the 70-million target by the end of the year.(CNN)
