Strong
public-private sector collaboration behind PH’s effective immunization rollout
– vaccine czar
The
Philippines has breached the 13 million mark of administered coronavirus
vaccine doses merely four days after administering 12 million doses, Secretary
Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday night, attributing the country’s aggressive
vaccination to the close cooperation between the government, private sector,
and multilateral agencies.
In
his report to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during a meeting on government’s
COVID-19 interventions, the vaccine czar said close ties with domestic and
international development partners have helped the Philippines a lot in
enforcing vaccination and COVID-19 mitigation strategies.
The
nation’s strong collaboration with the private sector, national government
agencies and local government units (LGUs) alongside the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB),
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and
GAVI, among others, has given the country added leverage in handling the
pandemic, he explained.
“We
have now the massive vaccination through Focus and Expand demand, and also the
Secretary of Health, together with our expert also the Inter-Agency Task Force
on the Management of Emerging Diseases (IATF-EID), have a stronger surveillance
and border control,” said Galvez, who is also the chief implementer of the
National Task Force Against COVID-19.
“Isa
po tayo sa model… Tayo lang po ang mayroong strong collaboration. They are
helping us a lot. So ‘yon po ang parang motto po natin: ‘United We Stand Against
COVID-19,’” he added.
Citing
WHO, the vaccine czar said under President Duterte’s leadership, the
Philippines has received a positive rating for having done “a good job” at
mitigating the health and socioeconomic crisis brought about by the pandemic.
WHO’s
representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe particularly
highlighted the lower rate of COVID-related deaths in the country despite not
having the same capacity and resources of First World countries.
Galvez
said President Duterte’s leadership and close cooperation with various sectors
has made Philippines’ PDITR (Prevent, Detect, Isolate, Treat, and Reintegrate)
“really effective” in managing the devastating impact of the pandemic.
“Despite
our limitation and great challenges, we were able to respond and mitigate the
damage brought about by this pandemic. And I believe with your leadership, Mr.
President, we have this positive rating because we have implemented a PDITR
strategy that really, really been very, very effective,” he noted.
Meanwhile,
the vaccine czar said the Philippines expects to receive more than 16 million
doses of vaccines this month through donations and government and private
sector procurements.
Sinovac
will deliver 2.5 million doses on July 14 and 17, while 1.1 million doses of
AstraZeneca is set to arrive on July 18.
The
US is also scheduled to donate, through the WHO-led COVAX facility, 3.2 million
doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Janssen vaccine on July 19.
Pfizer
will deliver 562,770 doses on July 19, while Moderna will provide 250,800 doses
on July 21 to 27. An additional 2.5 million doses from Sinovac will be
delivered on July 24 to 25 as well as another 375,570 doses of Pfizer on July
26. Before the month ends, Sinovac is expected to deliver 2.5 million more
doses.
Galvez
also expressed optimism in steady supply of vaccines for the month of August,
noting that China’s Sinovac has agreed to upscale its deliveries to 8.4
million. In addition to donations by the COVAX facility and government and
private sector procurements, the Philippines may receive at least 16.5 million
coronavirus vaccine doses next month.
The
vaccine czar said they are also eyeing to inoculate teachers before the end of
August for them to prepare for possible reopening of face-to-face classes. Apart
from teachers, uniformed personnel and other state workers are also among the
priority.
At
the same time, Galvez said that he, along with the country’s vaccine team, will
continue to visit different surge areas across the country to personally assess
the situations and “reconfigure prioritization” or reallocate vaccines to more
vulnerable areas if necessary.
At
present, among those who have received the first dose are: 1.5 million
healthcare workers and 209,193 of their family members; 2.6 million senior
citizens; 3.2 million individuals with comorbidities; 1.6 million economic
frontliners; and 307,450 individuals from indigent communities. PND
