The country will “luckily” benefit from two coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines secured by the government that are believed to be effective against the new variants of the coronavirus, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Monday.
Galvez informed President Duterte that the vaccines developed by Novavax and Johnson & Johnson have undergone clinical trials in the United Kingdom and other countries affected by the new coronavirus strain.
Authorities earlier announced that the government has locked-in 30 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from the US-based Novavax.
An additional 10 million one-shot vaccines against the coronavirus from Johnson & Johnson are being negotiated by the government.
“We have also some information on the development raising some concerns on vaccine performance against the new variants. So ito po ‘yung nagiging isang concern na ‘yung ibang mga vaccine na nabili natin ay kaya pong i-cover ‘yung variants ng UK, ‘yung South Africa at saka ‘yung sa Brazil,” Galvez said in his remarks aired on state television Monday, Feb. 8.
The President clarified with Galvez the “potency” of the country’s vaccine supply against the new variants of the coronavirus during the meeting on the pandemic response. The vaccine czar answered in the affirmative.
Apart from the two suppliers, the country is still trying to secure supply deals with other vaccine manufacturers to procure at least 178 million COVID-19 shots that will be good for 92 million people. (Genalyn Kabiling)
