MANILA – Philippines is not lagging behind its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine rollout (COVID-19), according to Malacañang.
“Kasinungalingan. Walang basehan. Guni-guni,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
He stressed out that the country will have its first COVDI-19 vaccine rollout by mid-February.
“Tatlong asyanong mga bansa pa lamang ang nagro-rollout. Sa Singapore 1.98 percent pa lang ang nababakunahan. Sa India, 0.27 percent pa lamang at sa Indonesia, 0.19 percent. Ibig sabihin po nito hindi po tayo nangungulelat,” the spokesperson added.
According to him, the government is planning to vaccinate a minimum of 50 million Filipinos by the end of the year.
Around 5.6-million COVID-19 vaccine doses from United States’ Pfizer and the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca are slated to reach the country within the first quarter of 2021.
A total of 117,000 doses produced by Pfizer-BioNTech will be delivered through the COVAX facility in mid-February, while the country’s vaccination drive will be boosted with 5,500,800 to 9,290,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines./PN
