MANILA – Ang pagdating ng unang batch ng mga Moderna vaccine ay nagpalakas ng paghimok ng pagbabakuna sa bansa laban sa coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Ang Singapore Airlines Flight SQ918 ay naghatid ng kabuuang 249,600 dosis na mga American-made vaccine sa Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 noong Linggo ng gabi
“This is very significant as we now have five brands of vaccines in the country. It can create a lot of confidence because globally, this is the 2nd (most used) vaccine by many countries. As what I have said earlier, the side effects of this vaccine are very rare, very negligible and most of the countries agreed that they are very comfortable with using Moderna vaccines,” sinabi ng National Task Force against Covid-19 chief implementer na si Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. sa isang panayam.
Ang mga bakuna na kasalukuyang ginagamit ng Pilipinas ay Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, at Sputnik V laban sa Covid-19.
Ang gobyerno ng Pilipinas ay bumili ng 150,000 na dosis, habang ang pribadong sektor, na pinangunahan ng International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), ay nakakuha ng 99,600 na dosis, ayon kay Galvez.
“We will study the deployment of these vaccines because this is our first time handling Moderna. The majority of the vaccines will be deployed in the National Capital Region and later, we will give other urban centers and areas. The priority sectors for deployment are A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities but we have committed a bulk of these vaccines to OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) and the seafarers and government front-liners,” paliwanag ni Galvez.
Ang Pilipinas ay pumirma ng kasunduan para sa 20 milyong dosis ng Moderna vaccine na ihahatid sa mga batch sa darating na mga buwan.
Bumili ang gobyerno ng 13 milyong dosis, habang nakuha ng pribadong sektor ang natitirang 7 milyong dosis para sa mga empleyado nito.
Inilahad din ni Galvez na ang gobyerno ay nakapagbakuna na ng halos 10 milyong mga Pilipino.
Pinangasiwaan ni Health Secretary Francisco Duque III ang ika-10 milyong Covid-19 bakuna sa Nieves Catacutan, na kabilang sa A5 group (indigents), sa Valenzuela City Astrodome Mega vaccination Hub sa Lunes.
Kasama ni Galvez sina Christian Martin Gonzalez, executive vice president ng ICTSI, David Gamble Jr., economic counselor ng US Embassy sa Pilipinas, mga opisyal ng Zuellig Pharma, at Department of Health Undersecretary Carol Tanio.
“Essential services, so they will be prioritized. If the doses will be released to us tomorrow, we will start tomorrow (Monday) afternoon. All the companies will be given a pro rata share of their orders. We obviously want to start with ITCSI and all the other big ones because they will have a significant amount of pro-rata share. Every single company will have a share of this batch and we will start with the vaccination as soon as possible,” sinabi ni Gonzalez sa mga reporter sa isang panayam.
