Filipinos under the government’s priority list will be inoculated two to three days after the first batch of coronavirus vaccines arrives in the country on Feb. 20, National Policy Against Covid-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Wednesday.

“Hindi na po tayo magtatagal kunyari bigyan lang po natin 2 to 3 days at ituturok po natin kaagad yan at uunahin natin yung apat na referral hospitals natin dito sa (We will not take any longer, for an instance, we will wait two to three days only and we will immediately inject the vaccines and we will prioritize the four referral hospitals here in) Metro Manila,” Galvez, also the vaccine czar, said in an interview at the Laging Handa public briefing.

These referral hospitals include Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (DJNRMH) formerly known as Tala Leprosarium in Caloocan City, and Lung Center of the Philippines and East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City.

“Afterwards ang gagawin po natin ang lahat ng mga hospital na may Covid referral sa different cities ng Metro Manila, Cebu City at Davao City po ay susunod na po yun (Afterwards, we will cover all the Covid-19 referral hospitals located in different cities in Metro Manila, Cebu City and Davao City),” he said.

Galvez said the first batch of the vaccines will be coming from drugmakers Pfizer-BioNtech and AstraZeneca under the sealed agreement with the COVAX Facility.

Some 117,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer pharmaceutical company will be the first to arrive on Feb. 20 and these will be delivered in one tranche, Galvez said.

It would be followed by the arrival of around 5,500,000 to 9,290,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to be delivered on the first and second quarter of this year, he added.

Galvez said the government will strictly follow the regulation of the World Health Organization (WHO) in using the vaccines acquired from the COVAX Facility including the prioritization of healthcare workers, vulnerable sector, and indigent senior citizens in the country’s inoculation plan.

“Dito po sa COVAX, ang [guidance] po ng WHO talagang and i-priority natin ang more or less 3 to 6 million nating mga front-liners (In our agreement under COVAX Facility, the guidance of WHO is that we will prioritize the vaccination of more or less 3 to 6 million of the country’s front-liners),” Galvez said “Kasama na po ang lahat ng ospital, vaccinators, BHERTs [Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams], local health officers, uniformed personnel at ibang (including all hospitals, vaccinators, BHERTs, local health officers and other) economic front-liners.”

The government’s Covid-19 Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) team, he said, has been visiting the local government units (LGUs) to discuss the vaccine deployment and the nationwide immunization program.

“Pupuntahan po ng CODE team ang iba’t ibang mga siyudad sa NCR at pagkatapos ay iba’t ibang bahagi naman ng bansa tulad ng Davao City, Cebu City, Region 3, Region 4-A, at Baguio City upang makita ang kanilang kahandaan sa pagtanggap ng mga bakuna (We will be visiting different cities in the National Capital Region and after that, we will go through various cities and municipalities nationwide such as Davao City, Cebu City, Region 3 [Central Luzon, Region 4A [Calabarzon], and Baguio City to monitor their preparedness on vaccine deployment),” Galvez said.

Galvez noted that the government is now at the “advance stage” of negotiations with various pharmaceutical companies. (PNA)