QUICKLY, THE SITUATION. [1] CoronaVac/Sinovac vaccines for Cebu City may arrive Tuesday, March 2. Only 3,500 doses for health personnel of Vicente Sotto hospital. None yet for the rest of the community.
About 2,480 VSMMC health workers signified willingness to get the China made vaccine against Covid-19. Initial shipment to the city will be from the 600,000 doses of CoronaVac/Sinovac that arrived Sunday, February 28, in Pasay City as donation from China.
[2] The Cebu City Council Monday, March 1, in a special session, authorized the city mayor to send a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to Faberco Life Sciences Inc., which markets Covovax, signifying its plan to buy the vaccines developed by an American technology firm in Maryland, USA and manufactured by Serum Institute of India. It also gives the same authority for AstraZeneca, the vaccine produced by the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical firm with headquarters in Cambridge, England.
[3] The City Council excluded from the LOI the vaccine CoronaVac/Sinovac, produced by Sinovac Life Sciences in Beijing, China, saying it will wait for guidelines from the national government before the city will buy the vaccine, on top of the number of doses the IATF will allocate for it.
[4] How long will Cebu City have to wait before getting the vaccines it will order? Vice Mayor Mike Rama, who presided Monday's special session, said national vaccine czar Carlito Galvez had told him it would take about six months. A Covovax representative told the Sanggunian that orders will be filled from the shipment it will receive this year and the excess orders in the next year's shipments.
In sum, the City Government is closer to getting vaccines from the national government than from its own purchase.
[5] Cebu City is ready with 10 vaccination centers, with each site having four teams that jab 100 persons each. A vaccinee has to stay for 30 minutes to one hour to be observed; thus drive-in vaccination, proposed by Councilor Noel Archival, is ruled out. Inoculation for home-bound seniors, proposed by Councilor Alvin Dizon, is considered feasible.
DOES CITY LAG BEHIND? Majority Floorleader Councilor Raymond Garcia told resource persons from Faberco and Covovax the city administration is being blamed by some persons in the private sector for having not signed a vaccine supply agreement yet with any pharmaceutical firm.
A Faberco representative confirmed that they ask for a letter of intent to know the number of doses the LGU needs. The firm has been working on a supply agreement with the national agreement, which it expects to finalize next week, to cover the purchase of 30 million doses of Covovax. Once that is done, the term sheet and the supply agreement with the national government will be used for the separate deals with LGUs.
So no supply or purchase agreement with any LGU yet? Councilor Garcia pressed. "None," the Faberco rep confirmed.
That's as far as Covovax is concerned, since the cities and provinces that were earlier reported to have "inked deals" over vaccines contracted also with other firms such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Marketing procedure and policy of those firms were not known yet.
Only reps from Faberco/Covavac showed up at the City Council session. A DOH official discussed safety and efficacy of Sinovac/Coronavac but not the marketing aspect.
TIED TO NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. The dialogue at the special session showed that, at least with Covavac and its distribution arm Faberco, the city has to depend on national government moves and decisions.
Even after the mayor issues the letter of intent to Faberco for the Covovax vaccines, they still have to wait for: (a) the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine; (b) finalization of the supply agreement over 30 million doses the national government will buy; and (c) the term sheet for the said purchase, which will be used for the LGUs' purchase.
City Hall had waited for guidelines on buying, which have still to come, except for the general advice that a tripartite agreement would be needed. Now again, as far as Faberco/Covovax is concerned, after submitting its LOI, it must await the supply agreement with Manila, the EUA for the vaccine, and term sheet for the purchase.
Even on the number of doses to order, City Hall must guess as it does not know how many it will get eventually from the national government. IATF was reported to have ordered 30 million doses of Covovax and 17 million doses of AstraZeneca. Neither the Sanggunian nor the officials planning the vaccine rollout have been told how many vials are allocated for Cebu City.
VOLUME, PRICE. The Vaccine Convenors, which the City Council formed with the executive department, gathered consensus from government agencies and sectors in several virtual and physical meetings. Presumably it also got inputs from the Vaccine Board earlier created by the mayor.
Before the Sanggunian met March 1, the convenors had reduced the number of vaccines to consider from 10 to three. Representatives from the three brands were invited to the dialogue. Only the Covovax/Faberco reps showed up. At session's end, the City Council decided to authorize the mayor to issue the LOI to buy Covovax and AstroZeneca with the volume not mentioned. Faberco told the Council members the city could send a follow-up letter that will cite the number of doses.
The cost also was not mentioned. Faberco/Covovax said it still has to be set. The price they give to IATF will be the same price for local governments.