Philippine Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez announced that the 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive in the Philippines on Monday. The doses will be coming from the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility.
Last week, the WHO said that the Philippine government has submitted all the requirements needed for the AstraZeneca vaccines which will be supplied by the COVAX facility. The COVAX Facility is an initiative that aims for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines to its member countries.
“I also want to update you that the Philippines has met all the requirements necessary for accessing the AstraZeneca vaccines,” WHO Country Representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe said during a briefing with the Department of Health.
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The WHO official confirmed around 5.5 million to 9.2 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine have been set aside for the country.
“What we are now looking at is accelerating delivery of those AstraZeneca vaccines, at least a part of that shipment to the Philippines,” Abeyasinghe added.
“I understand that the Department of Health has supplied all the letters necessary to the COVAX initiative to access the early rollout of those AstraZeneca vaccines,” the WHO official said.
He also said that AstraZeneca no longer demanded for more documents before their vaccine delivery unlike Pfizer.
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“We are optimistic that before the end of this week, we will hear from the COVAX initiative on likely delivery dates for AstraZeneca vaccines to the Philippines,” he said.
AstraZeneca will use its facility in South Korea dedicated exclusively in manufacturing the COVAX Facility’s vaccine requirements.
“And what is earmarked for the Philippines will be coming from South Korea. So, we still remain optimistic that we will receive the AstraZeneca vaccines within the timeframes that we were talking about,” he said. (TDT)
