Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Thursday night the Philippines has so far secured a total of 194.89 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that are enough to inoculate about 100.5 million Filipinos or more than 100 percent of the country’s adult population.
The national government expects its stocks of COVID-19 vaccines to total 170 million doses, along with another 24.90 million doses financed by local government units (LGUs) and the private sector.
As of August 26, Dominguez said the national government has secured financing for a total of 105.65 million doses that were funded through loans amounting to US$1.126 billion from multilateral development institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
“Wala ho tayong problema sa pera, may financing na lahat yan at we don’t have to worry about money here. We have already all the money ready to be paid for these doses,” said Dominguez during the televised meeting of President Duterte with select Cabinet officials Thursday night.
Dominguez said a total of 48.84 million doses came from donations from the Philippines’ bilateral partners and the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility.
The allocation of P8.42 billion (approximately US$176.5 million) for COVID-19 vaccines under the 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA) enabled the government to procure 15.5 million doses, he said.
With the procurements of the LGUs and the private sector supplementing the national government’s efforts to source COVID-19 vaccines, the Philippines is assured of 194.89 million vaccine doses that are enough to inoculate 100.5 million Filipinos, Dominguez told the President.
The Finance Secretary said that 48.89 million doses were delivered to the country from March 1 to Aug. 25, and another 42 million doses are due to arrive between Aug. 26 and Sept. 30.
In the last quarter of this year, Dominguez said the government expects to receive an additional 103.59 million doses.
“So actually, we are expecting roughly 50 million doses a month—from September to December. If that happens, maybe by January we should have been able to inoculate everyone,” Dominguez said.
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