MANILA, Philippines — Health frontliners in several hospitals in Metro Manila and other major cities will also get the first COVID-19 shots once vaccine supplies arrive this month, the Department of Health said Tuesday.
The Philippines is expected to receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by mid-February through the COVAX facility, an initiative led by the World Health Organization to ensure fair and equitable access to the jabs.
In an interview on CNN Philippines, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the first tranche of Pfizer doses will be distributed to other hospitals aside from the main COVID-19 referral centers.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said medical frontliners and hospital staff of the Philippine General Hospital, Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium, East Avenue Medical Center and Lung Center of the Philippines will be the first to get vaccinated against the respiratory disease once supplies arrive.
“It’s not just those four hospitals that we’re going to provide these vaccines with. We’re going to provide other DOH-designated hospitals for COVID-19 and that would include specific hospitals in Cebu and Davao,” Vergeire said.
“Big” local government hospitals and five private hospitals in Metro Manila will also receive the first doses of Pfizer vaccine. Vergeire, however, did not name the facilities.
The health official said the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility may arrive in the Philippines on February 13. But Vergeire said authorities are still waiting for the final confirmation from COVAX.
“If ever it will come on February 13, three days after we will begin the rollout… The dates we have mentioned are just indicative, it depends on the confirmation given by the COVAX facility,” she said.
The Philippines may also receive at least 5.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX.