Philippines to procure 6 million J&J vaccine doses — Galvez

MANILA, Philippines — The government is procuring some six million new doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, inoculation czar Carlito Galvez Jr. has announced. 

Galvez at an event in Pampanga on Monday said they are due to sign a deal with the US manufacturer for the additional supply of the jabs. 

"More or less six million doses, one shot," he said in mixed English and Filipino. "We will use this for our allocation in January."

Local regulators cleared Johnson & Johnson's jab for emergency use in April. The single-dose jab is 66.9% effective at preventing COVID-19 infections, according to the World Health Organization.

The country received its first ever supply of the said vaccine in July, or for 1.6 million doses. It was the first half of the entire 3.2 million the United States government donated to Manila through the COVAX Facility. 

Philstar.com's monitoring showed the Philippines' supply of J&J vaccine remain all from the global initiative, with no procured doses arriving yet. 

Galvez added the government is also in talks with four other vaccine manufacturers to buy some 90 to 100 million more doses for 2022. 

Official data by October 4 showed there are now 21.99 million Filipinos fully vaccinated for COVID-19. 

The figure is out of the government's target of inoculating up to 70 million this year in a bid to meet "population protection."

Some 24.87 million have received a first shot, with now 46.77 million doses in total administered.