THE government will ensure the vaccination of 100 percent of the country's adult population against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. assured the public on Wednesday, amid claims of its supposed inaction on tripartite agreements to procure the jabs.Galvez, who is also the chief implementer of the National Task Force Against Covid-19, made this assurance after Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri sought to look into the hanging requests for vaccine procurement of 42 local government units (LGUs) and about 300 private companies.'We would like to reassure Senator Zubiri that the National Task Force Against Covid-19 and the Vaccine Cluster are determined to secure safe, effective and sufficient vaccines to inoculate 100 percent of the country's adult population,' Galvez said in a statement.Through the government's continued negotiations with various vaccine manufacturers and collaboration with its international partners, Galvez said the county has so far received 42,575,350 doses this year, with over 28 million shots administered nationwide as of August 15.'Our efforts to accelerate the implementation and expand the coverage of our vaccination rollout has borne fruit. As of August 15, almost 28 million jabs have been administered nationwide, with more than 98 percent of our health frontliners vaccinated,' Galvez said.Moreover, Galvez said that the Philippines now ranks second in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the 23rd in the world in terms of vaccinations administered.'Our vaccine throughput continues to increase by the day, as we move closer to achieving our target of administering 750,000 jabs daily,' the vaccine czar said.'With these milestones, it is safe to say that our country's vaccine rollout can be considered as one of the most successful in the world despite the challenges we continue to face in the global supply market,' he added.Galvez also listed reasons why multi-party agreements (MPA) for the LGUs' and the private sector's purchase for 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been either put on hold or have not been signed.Zubiri said about 42 LGUs and over 300 private companies still have pending tripartite deals which could have covered at least 10 million vaccine doses and increased the country's daily vaccination capacity to over a million doses a day.'Moderna and AstraZeneca are no longer accepting vaccine orders through MPAs for the time being,' the vaccine czar said.The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax has yet to secure an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the country's Food and Drug Administration (FDA), he added.For the procurement of Sinovac, Pfizer, and Sputnik V, Galvez said their manufacturers 'intend to prioritize the orders of the national government given current supply constraints.''Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN has yet to secure approval from the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC). Further, we remain concerned about potential overpricing issues on the aforesaid vaccine,' he said.Further, Galvez said Johnson & Johnson was 'not open' to MPAs required for LGUs' vaccine purchase under Republic Act 11525 also known as the Covid-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021.'We would like to assure our LGUs that the national government has sufficient funds to procure the vaccines. In fact, we have already ordered more than enough doses for our target population so that we can make up for slippages or shortfalls in deliveries,' Galvez said.'But we have to face the reality that vaccine makers are still not able to produce at a level that would meet the requirements of all nations. The issue is not just about having the resources to procure the vaccines but its limited supply in the world market,' he added.Galvez asked LGUs to 'be more patient,' saying the national government was doing its best to ensure equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccine doses.
