THE Philippines is set to receive just a trickle of Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines on Sunday and those jabs would not go far, says Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire, who hinted that those doses would be just for the use of Metro Manila and adjoining provinces of Rizal, Laguna, Cavite and Bulacan, collectively referred to as NCR Plus.
In a press briefing, Vergeire said that the first batch of 15,000 anti-coronavirus vaccine doses from Russia strictly requires cold storage facilities with an extremely low temperature, which could only be found in the National Capital Region (NCR).
It differs from the vaccines developed by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech and British-Swedish firm Oxford-AstraZeneca, which only require normal fridge temperatures or -2 to -8 degrees Celsius.
“These storages are not available in all areas in the Philippines. So, upon its arrival, only select areas and local government units capable of storing the vaccine would receive it. Sputnik V has a storage requirement. Unfortunately, we could not distribute it across all regions,” Vergeire said.
Aside from the availability of the cold storage facility required for the vaccine to keep its potency, Vergeire also said that NCR Plus has been prioritized in vaccine supply due to a fresh surge in coronavirus cases.
She, however, assured that areas outside the NCR Plus would also receive vaccine doses as soon as additional supplies arrive.
“We favor areas with a high number of cases since we want to protect the vulnerable sector in these places,” Vergeire said.
The Food and Drug Administration has cleared Sputnik V, which demonstrated a whopping 97.6 efficacy, for use on individuals aged 18 years and older.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier assured that 480,000 more Russian-made vaccines are arriving on Thursday. Incidentally, 500,000 more doses of Sinovac jabs are also set to arrive that same day.
By next month, Galvez also claims two million doses of Sputnik V, another two million doses of CoronaVac, and an initial batch of 194,000 doses of Moderna vaccines would also be delivered.