The government is now eyeing to tap unused Covid-19 vaccines from the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom to boost its own vaccination program.
In an online press briefing on Thursday, Chief implementer of the government’s national policy on Covid-19 Carlito G. Galvez Jr. disclosed they already sent letters to said countries for this purpose.
He explained this is part of their contingency plan in case the Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility will be unable to deliver the next batch AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine it has committed to the country on time.
The vaccine czar, however, said he is confident the Covax facility will finally be able to deliver with its promised AstraZeneca doses “not later than June.”
“We have an assurance Covax and the WHO (World Health Organization) that we will get [the Astrazeneca vaccine] second dose,” Galvez said.
To recall, the government used up all the initial doses of AstraZeneca vaccine it got from the Covax facility to give the first jab to 525,000 individuals with the expectation the second batch will be arriving this month.
It takes two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine before an individual becomes inoculated from Covid-19.
Once the 10 million additional doses of Covid-19 vaccine arrives Galvez said that is the time the government and the private sectors could start inoculation of millions of workers.