200K more Pfizer doses arrive in CV, may only be for Metro Cebu

CENTRAL Visayas has received a total of 210,000 additional doses of Pfizer vaccine on Thursday night, June 10, 2021, the Department of Health (DOH) 7 said.

Dr. Mary Jean Loreche, DOH 7 spokesperson, said because of the stringent storage requirements for the Pfizer vaccine including the training needed for the vaccinatiom teams who will administer the Pfizer vaccine, these additional doses might still be allocated only to vaccination posts within Metro Cebu.

She also said of the 54,400 additional Sinovac doses that arrived in Central Visayas last Tuesday, June 8, a total of 6,000 doses were distributed to Bohol which will serve as first and second doses for 3,000 individuals.

On the other hand, 20,000 doses were allocated for Cebu; another 20,000 doses for Negros Oriental; 4,000 for Siquijor; 1,600 doses for Cebu City; 1,200 for Lapu-Lapu City; 600 doses for Mandaue City, and 1,000 doses were retained as buffer at the DOH 7.

As of June 8, the region received a total of 322,160 doses of Sinovac; 162,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine; 29,250 doses of Pfizer, and 300 doses of Gamaleya’s Sputnik V.

Of the 814,775 healthcare workers, senior citizens and individuals with comorbidities who are eligible for vaccination in the region, only 237,481 have so far received their first dose as of June 9.

Of the number, a total of 98,094 have been fully vaccinated with the complete two doses.

National vaccine tally

Meanwhile, another one million doses of the Sinovac vaccine arrived Thursday, June 10, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 announced that these brought the total number of doses delivered to the country to 10,329,050 as of Thursday noon.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. also said an additional 2,279,160 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were expected to arrive from Covax, making Thursday’s deliveries the biggest in a single day.

The new Sinovac shipment of CoronaVac, its Covid-19 vaccine, arrived via Cebu Pacific Flight 5J671. Sinovac Biotech has now delivered a total of 7.5 million doses of CoronaVac.

The new deliveries form part of the 11,058,000 doses that are expected to arrive this June.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said he was expecting 5.5 million doses from Sinovac, one million doses of Sputnik V from Gamaleya in Russia, 250,000 doses from Moderna, around 2.28 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and 2.028 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will come from Covax, the initiative aimed at ensuring global vaccine equity.

As of Thursday noon, June 10, the Philippines has taken delivery of 7.5 million doses from Sinovac, 2.556 million doses of AstraZeneca, 193,050 doses of Pfizer and 80,000 doses of Sputnik V.

The Philippines is administering Covid-19 vaccines to priority groups A1 (health workers, mayors, governors), A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities). Government also kicked off on June 7 the vaccination of priority group A4 (essential workers).

As of June 8, 1,681,722 individuals have been fully vaccinated while 2,951,104 have received their first dose.

A total of 6,314,548 doses have been administered nationwide. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)