COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Still a Challenge in Ph

Crossworld Marine Services, Inc. congratulates the Duterte government for administering 18 million COVID-19 vaccines to Filipinos as of July 2022.

However, the Philippines is still facing a shortage in supply as vaccination options remain limited. This has resulted in a challenging situation for Filipino seafarers and manning firms in the country.

A huge part of Filipino seafarers remain unvaccinated due to several reasons. Aside from supply issues, there’s also the need for seafarers to get vaccinated with western brands which is a requirement for entry in some countries.

As of the moment, COVID-19 vaccines are not readily available and most of them are allocated to local government units. Private procurement is also not yet directly allowed. Choosing a specific brand is also not possible for the general public.

The government has said that single shot vaccines will be allotted to overseas Filipino workers including Filipino seafarers. But, the stocks remain low.

The Inter-Agency Taskforce for Managing emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) has allocated 30,000 doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine exclusively for seafarers. Of this number, 15,000 are allocated for the 1st dose and another 15,000 for the 2nd dose.

But those numbers are small compared to the 400,000 documented Filipino seafarers in the global maritime industry.

The government said 132 million jabs are expected to arrive in the next six months. These include the millions of donations from other countries sharing their excess stock to the Philippines.