Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. on Monday night said the country might face a shortage of coronavirus vaccine supply during the first and second quarter of the year.

Galvez, chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, cited that most of the western vaccines are being procured by the United States and European countries.

But he reminded confident that the Philippines could still vaccinate most of its citizens this year. 

"Sinasabi nga po natin sa quarter --- first quarter or second quarter magkakahirapan pa po rin tayo dahil kasi ‘yong karamihan ng mga western vaccine ay ginagamit po ng mga taga-Europe at saka sa Amerika po (In the first or second quarter, we will have difficulty because of the western vaccines are being used by Europe and America),” he said during a meeting with President Duterte and other officials on the pandemic response in Davao City Monday, Feb. 15.

“If we look at it, our world population is at 7.8 billion. Out of that, 5.5 billion are adults then the willing adults (to be vaccinated) is more or less 4 billion. If we look at the supply and demand in 2021, there’s a possibility that we will meet our vaccination program’s goals in 2021,” he said in Filipino.

Galvez said this during President Duterte’s address to the nation, which was earlier recorded but was aired at almost midnight.

The Philippines plans to roll out its vaccine program by mid-February but is still waiting for the arrival of the vaccines, supposedly from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac. 

The government is still processing some documents with the assistance of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the COVAX facility.

China-made Sinovac vaccines are scheduled to arrive in the country on February 23. It can jumpstart the country’s vaccination program that will prioritize the inoculation of health care workers, seniors, people with comorbidity, and uniformed personnel.

Galvez reported to the President that the six approved vaccines currently in the market have a capacity to produce of “more or less 10 billion vaccines.”
He shared that American-made Novavax and Johnson & Johnson are also on their Phase 3 trials. Both of them can produce 3.2 billion units this year. In total, there will be 13.2 billion available vaccines for 2021. 

Meanwhile, the vaccine czar also reported to Duterte that the simulation of the vaccine delivery went well as there was no delay in the processes.

When asked about the possible problems in the storage of the vaccines, Galvez noted that third-party providers “have a lot of storage available” and that it can distribute even Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines to as far as Davao City and Cebu City. 

Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines need deep-freezer storage, which the Philippines lack in capacity. Galvez noted that the one at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) can only accommodate about one million doses. 

The vaccine czar said he and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III have already discussed the storage problem and will make an emergency procurement.

“For example, if Pfizer will charge $10 and the service provider is more or less $1, that will be included in the approval of the loan. It includes the service provider. It’s going to be end-to-end, so we will not have problems anymore,” he told the President.

Galvez cited that Novavax, for example, has chosen pharmaceutical company Unilab to be its storage facility.