Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez has apologized for the delay in the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines.
The country lags behind its Southeast Asian neighbors in carrying out its COVID-19 vaccination plans.
“Kaunting pasensya lang po. Pasensya na po talaga na talagang hindi po natin kasi hawak iyong ating supply chain… doon sa mga vaccine,” Carlito Galvez Jr, chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said in a speech.
“Sana po maintindihan n’yo po ang kalagayan ng gobyerno. Kami po talaga, ginagawa po namin ang aming magagawa, lalo na sa FDA, na sana iyong aming, iyong ating vaccine na dadalhin dito ay very safe, effective,” he added.
Galvez said that the absence of an indemnification fund delayed the arrival of the 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech shots allocated to the Philippines through the vaccine sharing platform COVAX Facility.
The vaccines were set to arrive this week but were delayed. The Palace also announced that the shipment of 600,000 doses from China’s Sinovac Biotech might also be pushed back due to the lack of emergency use authorization.
“Minsan, ako po’y nahihiya dahil sabi nga, bakuna na lang ang kulang. Nasaan na iyong bakuna? Iyon ang question po sa atin ngayon,” Galvez said.
“Bilang the leading person to really procure and manage and get the best vaccine for all of us, nakita natin na talagang medyo nahuli tayo nang kaunti,” he added.
The vaccine czar said that 10 countries account for about 75 percent of 190 million global vaccinations.
“We are hopeful na iyong COVAX, they will fulfill their commitment to bring us the 44 million doses,” Galvez said.
“Dapat intindihin din natin sila, na iyong pagbabakuna ng buong mundo, isang malaking hamon din sa kanila,” he added.
“Sa awa po ng Diyos, siguro po tingnan po natin, baka po meron ding umabot na vaccine this coming February and majority of our vaccine, baka magdating po ng March,” Galvez appealed.
