THE Duterte administration still has no “supply agreement” covering delivery of the awaited Covid-19 vaccine supply, senators were told Tuesday.
Testifying before members of the Senate Finance Committee, Health Secretary Francisco Duque and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. admitted under questioning by senators that the Duterte administration has yet to sign a final supply deal with manufacturers of the vaccines.
Galvez, however, assured senators that negotiations are still ongoing to forge a final supply agreement for Sinovac, Covovax, Moderna and Astrazeneca.
The absence of any supply agreement means, according to Minority Leader Frank M. Drilon, that there is no firm commitment as yet of any vaccine coming to the country soon and the awaited supplies are all based on Galvez’s good relations with suppliers.
Senators were told the only sure supply involved the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines expected to arrive on February 23. Such does not require any supply agreement because it is a donation of the China government.
Galvez, however, explained to the senators that there are already term sheets which are tantamount to a locked in arrangement for vaccine supply and they are looking at 108 million doses.
He also told senators that upon the Sinovac’s scheduled arrival on February 23, there will still be at least two to three days of technical inspection. This will be followed by the vaccination, assuming Sinovac gets its emergency use authorization (EUA) by that time.
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