PH to start general vaccination in October with 61M vaccine doses expected

The Philippine government is preparing to commence the vaccination of its general population in October, anticipating the arrival of more than 61 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines within September and October.

National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. announced that the country expects 12 million Sinovac doses and 20 million doses of Pfizer within September.

An additional 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jab will arrive on Monday.

Deliveries until October are also expected to include 1 million doses each of Sputnik and Japan-donated AstraZeneca, 8 to 10 million doses from the COVAX Facility, and 3 to 5 million doses of Moderna.

In October, Galvez stated that the government will likely receive 10 million doses of Sinovac, 10 million of Pfizer, 3 million doses of Moderna, a million doses of AstraZeneca, 3 to 5 million doses from the COVAX Facility, and 1.5 million doses from bilateral donations.

Among the expected supplies this month are single-dose Sputnik Light vaccines.