Manila, Philippines – The 2.27 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines procured by the Philippine government arrived in the country on Thursday evening, June 10, 2021 at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 via DHL Flight LD457.
These vaccines were developed by American corporation called Pfizer in New York (NY) and BioNtech, a German biotechnology company in Mainz, Germany.
According to DOH, the Pfizer-BioNTech doses from COVAX facility will mainly be allocated for Metro Manila, Davao and Cebu areas.
The fist shipment of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to the Philippines was on May 10 with 193,050 doses of Pfizer vaccines.
In a twitter post of Robert Borje, the chief presidential protocol said that the 1.9M doses of Pfizer from COVAX facility arrived in Manila and the 110,000 doses of Pfizer from COVAX facility were delivered in Davao City and 210,000 doses were delivered to Cebu City.
LOOK: Close to 1.9 million doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility arrives in Manila. Earlier today, around 210,000 and 111,000 doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines were delivered to Cebu and Davao City. More vaccines, more lives saved! 🇵🇭 pic.twitter.com/BGLFbJHqUI
— PAFA (@ph_opafa) June 10, 2021
Sec. Roque added that the Pfizer doses from COVAX facility will mainly be allocated to a low temperature areas like Metro Manila, Davao and Cebu because the vaccines requires negative 20 degrees temperature.
According to Pfizer, the vaccine needs to be stored in a ultra-low temperature freezers between -80ºC to -60ºCfor five days at refrigerated 2-8°C conditions.
Chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said the government expects 1.5 million doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to be delivered on June 17.
In a survey conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS), the most preferred vaccines of Filipinos are those from Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Earlier on Thursday morning, the government has received one (1) Million Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines of Chinese drug-maker Sinovac Biotech.
So far, this is the largest shipment of Covid-19 vaccines that the Philippines has received in a single day with a total of 3.2 million vaccines.
Covid-19 Vaccines Update
The Philippine government has received a total of 12,608,210 Covid-19 doses of vaccines as of June 10, 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.
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 |
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 vaccines.
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 is also expecting to receive AstraZeneca vaccines from World Health Organization (WHO) and from Pfizer-BioNTech within this year.
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 said.
| 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 |
Efficacy Rates of Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine
According to the official website of Pfizer, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 100% effective against severe disease as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 95.3% effective against severe COVID-19 as defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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