COVID-19 epicenters to become priority areas for immunization — vaccine czar
MANILA, Philippines — Vaccine czar and National Task Force Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. identified Monday the areas that will be prioritized in the distribution and deployment of coronavirus vaccines once they become available.
Galvez said the regions and cities that have become COVID-19 epicenters will be prioritized in the government’s immunization program. These include Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Central Luzon, Cebu City, Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City.
“These will serve as major hubs for the cold storage [of vaccines],” Galvez said in a briefing.
Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte said he wanted the country’s entire population to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
But with high demand and supply limitations, the government will have to prioritize health care workers, government frontline workers, uniformed personnel, poor households and vulnerable groups like senior citizens, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
Galvez said the government is aiming to buy at least 50 million vaccine doses to inoculate an initial target of 25 million people.
‘Realistic’ timeline
The country’s vaccine czar said that the bulk of COVID-19 vaccines may arrive in the country by end of 2021 or in early 2022 due to lack of supply.
“Realistically speaking, the main bulk of vaccines may reach the country by the end of next year or 2022 because wealthy countries have already acquired the majority of production,” Galvez said in Filipino.
But if everything goes well, the “best case scenario” would be to have available vaccines by May to June next year through the bilateral agreements with other nations and the country’s involvement in the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility.
The COVAX mechanism aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country.
The Philippines has total confirmed cases of 398,449, with 361,784 recoveries and 7,647 deaths. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Pharma giants Sanofi and GSK said on July 29, 2020, that they have agreed to supply Britain with up to 60 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement covers a vaccine candidate developed by France's Sanofi in partnership with the UK's GSK and is subject to a "final contract."
This thread collects some of the major developments in the search for a vaccine to ease the new coronavirus pandemic. (Main photo by AFP/Joel Saget)
As negotiations towards a new pandemic treaty pick up pace, observers warn of watered-down efforts to ensure equitable access to the medical products needed to battle future Covid-like threats.
Shaken by the pandemic, the World Health Organization's 194 member states are negotiating an international accord aimed at ensuring countries are better equipped to deal with the next catastrophe, or even prevent it altogether.
The process is still in the early stages, with the aim of reaching an agreement by May 2024.
But critics warn that revisions being made to the preliminary negotiating text are weakening the language -- notably in a key area aimed at preventing the rampant inequity seen in access to vaccines and other medical products during the Covid pandemic.
"I think it is a real step backwards," Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told AFP. — AFP
Africa's first mRNA vaccine hub is ceremonially launched on Thursday to acclaim from the UN's global health chief, who hailed it as a historic shift to help poor countries gain access to life-saving jabs.
The facility was set up in the South African city of Cape Town in 2021 on the back of the success of revolutionary anti-Covid vaccines introduced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
"This precious project... will bring a paradigm shift in addressing the serious problem we faced, the equity problem, during the pandemic, so (that) it's not repeated again," World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells a media briefing to mark the inauguration. — AFP
China has approved its first locally developed messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against Covid-19, its manufacturer said Wednesday, months after the relaxation of strict Covid-zero regulations sparked a surge in cases.
The vaccine, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, has been approved for "emergency use" by Beijing's health regulator, the company said in a statement.
It showed high efficacy in a trial in which it was used as a booster shot for people who have been given other types of vaccines, the company added, without offering further details. — AFP
COVID-19 vaccine maker Novavax raises doubts about its ability to continue its business, announcing plans to cut spending after struggles in rolling out its coronavirus jab.
Shares of Novavax plummeted 25 percent in extended trading, after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.
While the firm should have enough money to fund operations, the situation is "subject to significant uncertainty," it says in a statement. — AFP
The protection against Covid-19 from being previously infected lasts at least as long as that offered by vaccination, one of the largest studies conducted on the subject says.
Ten months after getting Covid, people still had an 88% lower risk of reinfection, hospitalisation and death, according to the study published in the Lancet journal.
That makes this natural immunity "at least as durable, if not more so" than two doses of Pfizer or Moderna's vaccines, the study says.
The authors nevertheless emphasized that their findings should not discourage vaccination, which remains the safest way to get immunity. — AFP
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