Manila, Philippines – The 50,000 Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines procured by the Philippine government arrived in the country on Sunday, May 30, 2021. These vaccines were developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
The said shipment landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sunday evening around 10:30pm via Qatar Airways Flight QR928.
Also present in receiving the shipment is the vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and other officials.
This is the third 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 while the second batch of 15,000 vaccines arrived last May 12.
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.
Five of the localities in Metro Manila received the vaccines as they have the frozen storage capacity.
Photo courtesy: ABS-CBN News
LOOK: Qatar Airways Flight QR928, which carries the 50,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines from Russia, landed in Manila at around 10:30pm.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and other officials receive the shipment. | via @JervisManahan pic.twitter.com/9ziNfIEhIv
— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) May 30, 2021
Covid-19 Vaccines Update
As of May 29, 1,189,353 were fully vaccinated and 3,930,670 received their first dose. The government has administered a total of 5,120,023 doses of vaccines in total.
The Philippine government has distributed at least 7,767,290 doses of COVID vaccines as of May 25, 2021. Each person needs 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
The government assure that the vaccines are free for all.
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 (A1), senior citizens (A2) and persons with comorbidities (A3) have undergone the vaccination program.
The national government expand the vaccination program for overseas Filipino workers and tourism frontliners.
As of May 30, the government received 8,329,050 vaccines from Pfizer (193,050), Gamaleya (80,000), Sinovac (5.5M) and AstraZeneca (2,556,000).
So far, the country has received a total of 5.5 million doses of SinoVac COVID-19 vaccines from which 1 million doses were donated by the Chinese government.
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 & 12, 2021 | Sputnik V | 30,000 |
| May 7, 2021 | SinoVac | 1,500,000 |
| May 8, 2021 | AstraZeneca | 2,030,400 |
| May 10, 2021 | Pfizer-BioNTech | 193,050 |
| May 19, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| May 30, 2021 | Sputnik V | 50,000 |
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.
See Also: Latest tally of the COVID-19 cases in the Philippines
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.
| 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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