MANILA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines has logged a total number of 489,736 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with the report of 2,052 new daily infections on Monday, the highest since Dec. 18.
The Department of Health (DOH) said in its daily bulletin that the death toll climbed to 9,416 after 11 more patients died from the coronavirus epidemic. It added that 10 more patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 458,206.
The Philippines has secured 25 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, and an additional 30 million doses from the Serum Institute of India (SII), officials announced on Monday.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque said Sinovac is expected to deliver an initial batch of 50,000 doses by February. The rest will be delivered in batches until December this year, he added.
"Based on our current negotiations, we are on track to provide the immunization services to 50 to 70 million Filipinos, provided that the global supply of vaccines are sustained or even increased within this year," Duque told a Senate hearing.
Coronavirus vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said the Philippines signed a term sheet with the SII to secure 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine Covovax.
"We locked in 30 million (doses), and it will be expandable to the local government units (LGUs)," Galvez said.
Galvez said the Covovax vaccine is available starting the third quarter of this year.
Galvez said the vaccine rollout against COVID-19 in the Philippines could start as early as the first quarter of 2021, but the bulk of the supply will be available in the latter part of the year.
"The main bulk of the vaccines that will be rolled out will be at the third and fourth quarter of this year," Galvez said.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Enrique Domingo told the lawmakers that the FDA will release its decision on the emergency use authorization (EUA) of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine by Tuesday or Wednesday.
"We are finalizing the EUA by Pfizer, and it will be out in one or two days," he said during the Senate hearing.
Three COVID-19 vaccine makers have sought emergency use authorization in the Philippines - Pfizer, British-Swedish vaccine maker AstraZeneca, and Russia's Sputnik V vaccine developed by Gamaleya Research Institute.
Domingo said the FDA is likely to decide on the EUA of AstraZeneca by the middle of this month.
In the meantime, several LGUs have closed deals to secure hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccine for their constituents as the government gears up for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The initiative is similar to the tripartite agreement signed between the national government, private sector, and pharmaceutical companies in November last year when Philippine private companies signed a deal for 2.6 million shots of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca. It was the Philippines' first supply deal for a coronavirus vaccine.
With the vaccines' limited supply and very high demand, Galvez has said the Philippines needs a united strategy to obtain its share of the vaccines.
"This is what the tripartite agreements aim to achieve," he said, adding the scheme will enable the national government to allocate resources for LGUs with no financial capability to purchase vaccines.
The Philippines is in talks with at least seven vaccine makers to procure 148 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021. Enditem
