MORE than 100,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s BNT162b2 Covid-19 vaccine, currently the largest bulk of doses delivered in Davao Region, arrived on Thursday morning, June 10, 2021.
This came a month since the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech, with a total of 29,250 doses delivered in the region. It is the third vaccine brand that was delivered in the region after several delays.
Dr. Abdullah Dumama Jr., Department of Health (DOH) undersecretary for the Visayas and Mindanao field implementation and coordination team, initially said a total of 111,150 doses of Pfizer vaccine arrived in the region.
Based on the information provided by DOH-Davao, a total of 105,300 doses arrived according to the final counting.
Dumama said the vaccines will all be allocated to Davao City for now as it is the only local government that has an existing ultra low-temperature freezer of about -80 degrees Celsius.
The Pfizer vaccines were immediately transported from the Francisco Bangoy International Airport (Davao International Airport) to DOH Regional Office, where it was stored in the ultra-low freezer.
Other bulk will also be transported to the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) and some private hospitals that have ultra-low temperature freezers.
Dumama said another batch of Pfizer vaccines will be transported to the region on Friday, June 11.
The region started rolling out the vaccines on May 17.
Davao City Health Office (CHO) Dr. Ashley Lopez revealed on Wednesday, June 9, that around 240,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine are expected to arrive in the region.
DOH-Davao Region Director Annabelle Yumang meanwhile said a total of 193,179 individuals were already inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccines (Pfizer, Sinovac, and AstraZeneca) for Priority Groups A1 (medical frontliners), A2 (senior citizens), and A3 (people with comorbidities) as of June 10.
The region is currently vaccinating those in the A2 and A3 groups.