Manila, Philippines – The 100,000 Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines procured by the Philippine government arrived in the country on Friday, June 11, 2021. These vaccines were developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
The said shipment landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on Friday evening around 10:32 pm via Qatar Airways flight.
Also present in receiving of the biggest batch of Sputnik V shipment is the vaccine czar and National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. and Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlov.
This is the fourth batch of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines that procured by the Philippine government arrived in the Philippines. The first batch of 15,000 Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines arrived on May 1, the second batch of 15,000 vaccines arrived last May 12 and the third batch of 50,000 jabs arrived on May 31.
The National Task Force against COVID-19 said that the first batch of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines that arrived in the country was used in a pilot run in preparation for the next batches of vaccines to be delivered.
As per FDA recommendation, the said vaccines need to be stored at a temperature of negative 18 degrees Celsius and must be kept in a frozen solution.
These vaccines will be transported to the PharmaServ Warehouse in Marikina City as they have the frozen storage capacity.
So far, the country received a total of 180,000 Sputnik V vaccines.
Covid-19 Vaccines Update
The Philippine government has received a total of 12,708,210 Covid-19 doses of vaccines as of June 11, 2021. Majority of the vaccines received by the government are SinoVac Vaccines with a total of 7.5M doses. These vaccines were developed by the Chinese drug-maker Sinovac BioNtech.
Since the vaccination rolled out by March 1, 2021, 1,681,722 were fully vaccinated and 4,632,826 received their first dose of vaccine. As of June 8, 2021, the Philippine government has administered a total of 6,314,548 doses of vaccine
Meanwhile, the Philippine government has distributed 8,684,060 doses of COVID vaccines as of June 07, 2021. Each person need 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
The government assure that the vaccines are free for all.
Here is the table showing the number of vaccines delivered in the country from February 2021 to present.
| Date | Name of Vaccines | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 28, 2021 | SinoVac | 600,000 |
| March 24, 2021 | SinoVac | 400,000 |
| March 29, 2021 | SinoVac | 1,000,000 |
| April 11, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| April 19, 2021 | AstraZeneca | 525,600 |
| April 22, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| April 29, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| May 1, 2021 | Gamaleya | 30,000 |
| May 7, 2021 | SinoVac | 1,500,000 |
| May 8, 2021 | AstraZeneca | 2,000,000 |
| May 10, 2021 | Pfizer-BioNTech | 193,050 |
| May 19, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| May 30, 2021 | Sputnik V | 50,000 |
| June 6, 2021 | Sinovac | 1,000,000 |
| June 10, 2021 | Sinovac | 1,000,000 |
| June 10, 2021 | Pfizer-BioNTech | 2,279,160 |
| June 11, 2021 | Sputnik V | 100,000 |
The target numbers of full vaccination by the end of the year are at least 58 million individuals.
DOH: Vaccination Priorities
The government approved the vaccination for economic frontline workers in essential sectors (A4) and indigent Filipinos (A5) beginning of June. So far, only health workers, senior citizens and persons with comorbidities have undergone the vaccination program. Here are the following categories in vaccination program.
The Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) also emphasized the importance and prioritization of the vaccination program of the government.
“We will use these vaccines among our A1 to A3 priority groups. If we don’t vaccinate them, we will encounter the same packed emergency rooms, unavailable intensive care units, and even hospital beds during the next surge,” DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
“Given the surge in cases in some regions, it is urgent to achieve high vaccination coverage in these A1 to A3 groups to protect those at risk of severe disease and death. WHO urges the National Task Force and the local government units to establish mechanisms to increase accessibility to vaccination of the healthcare workers and elderly across the country,” WHO Country Representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe sa
| Category | Priority group |
|---|---|
| A1 | Frontline health workers both national and local; public and non-public; health professional and non-professional (students, nursing aides, janitors, barangay health workers, et. al) |
| A2 | Senior citizens (60-years old and above) |
| A3 | Persons with comorbidities |
| A4 | Economic frontline workers in essential sectors including uniformed personnel. |
| A5 | Indigent Filipinos |
| B1 | Teachers and Social workers |
| B2 | Other Government Workers |
| B3 | Other Essential Workers such as grocery store workers, bank workers, retail workers, mall workers |
| B4 | Socio-demographic groups at significantly higher risk other than senior citizens and indigenous Filipinos such as persons deprived of liberty, persons with disabilities, Filipinos living in high-density areas, students |
| B5 | Overseas FIlipino Workers |
| B6 | Other remaining workforce |
| C | Rest of the Filipino population not otherwise included in the above priority groups |
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