The Department of Agriculture (DA) is preparing plans for the distribution of 600,000 doses of the African Swine Fever (ASF) vaccine, despite the vaccines not yet arriving in the Philippines.
According to the agency’s initial plan, an additional 10,000 doses of the AVAC vaccine will be sent to Batangas following the initial rollout.
These doses were purchased through emergency procurement.
An additional 150,000 doses are expected to arrive in the coming days and will be distributed to the provinces of La Union, Mindoro, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Cebu.
The remaining bulk of the 600,000 doses, which the government plans to purchase, will be allocated to areas previously identified by the DA as red zones.
Currently, 472 barangays from 109 municipalities and cities across 31 provinces remain affected by ASF, all classified as red zones, according to data from the Bureau of Animal Industry.
The purchase of the 600,000 AVAC vaccine doses has been funded with a total budget of P350 million.
