Top COVAX donors US, EU welcome arrival of AstraZeneca jabs in Philippines
MANILA, Philippines — Major contributors to the World Health Organization co-led COVAX facility welcomed the arrival of AstraZeneca vaccines in the Philippines.
After delays, 487,200 doses of the vaccine produced by the Swedish British drugmaker arrived in the country on Thursday night.
Both the United States and the European Union welcomed this latest development.
The US Embassy in Manila said it has initially donated P97.2 billion ($2 billion) to COVAX "to ensure the Philippines and other countries receive COVID-19 vaccines.
“The United States is proud to be the largest contributor to COVAX, and we welcome the successful arrival of the first tranche of AstraZeneca vaccines in the Philippines. As we fight the pandemic together, the United States will continue to support the Philippines’ vaccination and COVID-19 mitigation efforts,” US Chargé d’Affaires John Law said in a statement released Friday.
The U.S. welcomes the arrival of 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX facility in the Philippines on Mar. 4. The U.S., through USAID, has donated Php97.2 billion ($2B) to COVAX as part of a total $4 billion U.S. donation. Source: https://t.co/865xSBV2Ri pic.twitter.com/8BH4RVjUoY
— U.S. Embassy in the Philippines (@USEmbassyPH) March 5, 2021
In February, the US pledged to donate a total of P194.4 billion ($4 billion) to the COVAX facility to help the world's most vulnerable and at-risk populations in getting COVID-19 vaccines.
Team Europe, consisting of the EU and its member states with the European Investment Bank, meanwhile said it has to-date provided P130 billion (€2.2 billion) to COVAX.
No one is safe until everyone is safe. His Excellency Luc Véron, Ambassador of the European Union to the Philippines,...
Posted by European Union in the Philippines on Thursday, 4 March 2021
EU Ambassador Luc Véron highlighted that the Philippines will receive vaccines for 22 million Filipinos under the COVAX facility.
"The EU has both a responsibility and interest to make vaccines available to all. The European Union has maintained its goal to work in solidarity for vaccine cooperation and multilateralism — none is safe until everyone is safe," Véron said Thursday.
According to one of the officials leading the country's pandemic response team, the government may start distributing the AstraZeneca jabs on Friday or Saturday.
“Maybe the distribution of AstraZeneca vaccine to different hospitals will begin either later today or tomorrow,” Vince Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said in an interview on Teleradyo. — Patricia Lourdes Viray with report from Gaea Katreena Cabico
The national government has so far secured two official deals for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in the Philippines, one with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Watch this space for bite-sized developments on the vaccines in the Philippines. (Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire says the general population may now get their second booster jab.
"We're just waiting for the release of implementing guidelines, then we'll start rolling out our second booster for the general population," she says. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Amid questions on vaccines being administered, the Department of Health assures the public all doses are safe and effective as the “process of extending shelf life goes through thorough stability studies.”
“The government ensures that every vaccine that is injected with an extended shelf life has gone through studies, and is still safe and effective against COVID-19,” it adds.
Government must increase vaccination capacity across the Philippines in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the corona virus, Sen. Risa Hontiveros says.
She says local government units and the private sector can work together to put up more vaccination centers and deploy more vaccination teams to get more people inoculated against COVID-19.
"The active COVID cases have nearly doubled in three days. The positivity rate is almost four times the ceiling set by the World Health Organization. Huwag na nating hintayin na sobrang lumala pa ang sitwasyon bago tayo gumawa ng paraan para mapabilis ang ating pagbabakuna."
FDA chief Eric Domingo says that its agency has given emergency approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The United States immunized around 900,000 children aged five-to-11 against Covid in the first week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for them, a White House official says Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more have made appointments at pharmacies, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients tells reporters.
"The program is just getting up to full strength," he says, adding most of the shots were given in the last couple of days alone. — AFP
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