Gov't assures funds for 2022 vaccination program 

The government has allocated enough funds for vaccines and auxiliary supplies needed for this year's national Covid-19 immunization program, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19, said in a report by Philippine News Agency.

"Ang programa natin ngayon taong, ang gobyerno parin ang gagastos (The government will still spend for our vaccination program this year)," Galvez, also the vaccine czar, said at the sidelines during the ceremonial rollout of the "Resbakuna sa Botika" program in Pasig City.

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Galvez noted that Covid-19 vaccines acquiring only emergency use authorization (EUA) are still not available to the commercial market.

"We are talking to the manufacturers, they have no plan yet for this year, but definitely--maybe after six months, they can change their strategy for commercialization," he said.

Galvez said only the Pfizer-BioNTech jab is available for commercialization within the United States.

"I believed also other companies will [soon] ask for a commercialization rate," he said.

Galvez noted the government will still follow the centralized procurement of Covid-19 vaccines and auxiliary supplies this year.

"We allocated PHP45 billion for our multi-lateral loans and also PHP2.76 billion for the Department of Health GAA (general appropriations act) fund, so wala tayo problema (we don't have problems)," he said.

The Philippines has currently stored at least 100 million doses in various storage areas, with more vaccines expected to arrive within this quarter.

Galvez earlier said the 100 million jabs are “enough to cover 28 to 30 million unvaccinated individuals and 25 million individuals needing booster doses."

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The government also projected 90 million fully inoculated Filipinos by June, with more than 71.16 million adult Filipinos are expected to have received booster vaccine doses against Covid-19 by the end of the third quarter this year.