DAVAO City is expecting another batch of Covid-19 vaccines coming from the National Government before the end of March, Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio said.
Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on Monday, March 22, 2021, that this was based on verbal information she received.
The mayor, however, did not mention the brand and the number of doses that will arrive.
The National Government allocated 33,600 doses of Sinovac and 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca to Davao Region. Of the vaccines received, 20,000 doses of Sinovac and 2,000 AstraZeneca were given to the city.
The city started rolling out the allotted vaccines to the medical frontline health workers starting March 5. A total of 16,800 workers are targeted to be inoculated.
As of March 15, a total of 4,968 public and private frontline health workers were already inoculated. Of the number, 3,997 were from private hospitals who received the Sinovac vaccine and 997 were City Government health workers who received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Meanwhile, Duterte-Carpio said the city is "not pressuring" the National Government for the allotment of more doses.
"Wala tay ing-ana nga move nga magbutang og pressure sa IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases]. Kasi sila ang nakakita sa national data, so ginabilin nato sa ila ang pag-allot sa allotment sa kung asa ipadala ang mga bakuna (We are not pressuring the IATF. They know the national data and we leave it to them to decide on how many vaccine doses we will get)," she said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
She added, "Wala tay basehan nga (We do not have the basis that) we need more than the other LGUs because we do not see the nationwide numbers."
The city, meanwhile, already negotiated with AstraZeneca for the procurement of the Covid-19 vaccines and the drug firm committed to delivering 30,000 doses within the third quarter of this year.
But because of the large demand, the mayor said they are “not expecting” that it will be delivered anytime soon.
“Wala po’y expectation sa iyang arrival because kita man nato all over the world nga dunay kakulangan but nisulti ang AstraZeneca nga maybe third quarter sila maka-deliver sa first tranche sa atoang gikuha sa ilaha (We are not expecting it to arrive on time because of the shortage of the global vaccine supply. However, AstraZeneca said they might be able to deliver the first tranche of the vaccines we ordered from them around the third quarter),” Duterte-Carpio said.
The 19th City Council on March 16, passed an ordinance authorizing Duterte-Carpio to enter into and sign the term sheet to be entered into by and among Faberco Life Sciences Inc., City Government of Davao, Department of Health, National Task Force Against Covid-19 and "all other subsequent contracts that may be entered into by the City with the same or any of such parties, in pursuance of the acquisition/procurement by the City" of the NVX-COV2373 Vaccine to Novavax.
Duterte-Carpio said they are waiting for the documents and the city will disclose later on the details of their negotiation with Novavax.
The city is targeting to vaccinate an estimated 1.2 million individuals to achieve herd immunity.