WAITING. Vaccine recipients belonging to the A4 category, or economic front-liners, wait at the cinema lobby of a mall in Manila on Thursday (June 17, 2021). Manila has been vaccinating as many as 2,500 daily in each of the four malls, with some workers saying they lined up the night before to make the cutoff. (Photo courtesy of Manila-PIO)
MANILA – About 400,000 doses of Sinovac jabs purchased by the city government of Manila will arrive anytime soon.
Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said during a recent Facebook live update that the delivery will augment their share from government-procured vaccines.
“In a matter of a few days, ang lungsod ng Maynila ay magkakaroon ng sarili niyang bakuna on top of sa binibigay sa atin ng (the city of Manila will have its own vaccines on top of what is given to us by the) national government. A total of 400,000 doses of Sinovac will arrive soon in a matter of few days because we already sent the full payment to Sinovac Life Sciences Company Ltd.,” Domagoso said.
Domagoso said Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan and the city council raised PHP298.5 million for the Sinovac purchase, made through a tripartite deal with the national government and with the assistance of Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian.
Domagoso said they also ordered 800,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines in January but the delivery is expected in September yet while the city government is working on another deal for more jabs.
He acknowledged there have been delays in the arrival of supplies as more people are getting inoculated.
“Nakikita ko ang pagnanais nyo na kayo’y mabakunahan sa lalong madaling panahon. Talagang umaapaw ang mga pila sa mga vaccination sites at laging kulang 'yung bakuna sa dami ng gustong magpabakuna (I see your interest to get vaccinated the soonest possible. The queues in the vaccination sites are overflowing and vaccine supply, more often than not, is not enough),” Domagoso said.
He said that the goal of the city government is to be able to vaccinate more people at the soonest possible time, in line with the goal to achieve population protection. (PNA)
