₱45 Billion of 2022’s Budget Already Reserved for Vaccine Procurement

The government has already allocated ₱45 billion of next year’s national budget for the procurement of additional COVID-19 vaccines, assured Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III during Saturday’s meeting with President Duterte.

He added that around 65 million doses are expected to be acquired from July to September this year, and another 55 million shots by the end of the third quarter.

Meanwhile, the government is also looking forward to receiving 49 million doses from the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility in fulfillment of the promised 171 million vaccines for the country.

“Those 171 million is more than enough to vaccinate the entire adult population of the Philippines and the money is already available for that, okay. So there is no problem with the money for this year. Now, for next year, we will just have—we just had a meeting with [Budget] Secretary [Wendel] Avisado and [Health] Secretary [Francisco] Duque yesterday [Friday], and we noted that we have in the budget for next year already 45 billion pesos for additional vaccinations,” said Dominguez.

The Department of Finance chief further expressed his confidence that the government has more than enough funds to continue its pandemic response efforts well into the following year.

“Mr. President, I don’t think we’re good only until six months. I think we are good beyond 2022. So it’s not going to be easy but because of the moves that you have made from 2016 to 2019, we are ready to handle this problem financially. And that is due to you, Mr. President,” Dominguez elaborated.

Source: BusinessMirror