According to THE STRAITS TIME, the Philippines ordered 40 million coronavirus vaccine doses from Pfizer, the South-east Asian nation's biggest supply agreement as it fights one of the region's worst outbreaks.
The term sheet for the order has been signed, Mr Carlito Galvez, who leads the nation's vaccination programme, said in a mobile-phone message on May 17.
The deal gives a boost to the Philippines, which is targeting to achieve herd immunity this year (2021) to help an economy that remained in recession last quarter.
THE STRAITS TIME mentions, but while the country expects more than 200 million vaccine doses to arrive this year, recruiting as many as 50,000 health workers to administer shots in key cities poses a challenge, Mr Galvez said in a briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte. Most doctors and nurses are still treating Covid-19 patients in hospitals, Mr Galvez said, following a surge in infections that started mid-March.
The government plans to hire midwives, pharmacists, paramedics and medical students to administer the vaccines, Mr Galvez said. Inoculating workers and the poor will start this month, he said.
THE STRAITS TIME says, more than 2.5 million vaccine doses have been administered out of a population of more than 109 million, using vaccines mostly from Sinovac Biotech and AstraZeneca.
