Around 200,000 vaccine doses from COVAX facility to arrive by late February
(Eagle News) – About 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, “most likely Pfizer” will be coming into the country by February based on the COVAX facility of the World Health Organization, according to Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.
Answering questions at the Senate hearing, Galvez said that the COVAX facility has pledged a total of 40 million vaccine doses for the Philippines which will be good for about 16 to 20 percent of the population.
Galvez, the country’s vaccine czar, said that based Pfizer would “most likely” be among the first vaccine doses from the COVAX facility to arrive in the country by the next month.
He called this the ‘mini-rollout” of the COVAX facility.
“Yung mini-roll-out, or a few thousand of doses nila will be coming this Fbruary. Siguro po it will not be more than 200,000 doses, siguro, pero wala pa pong definite na volume,” Galvez said answering questions of Senator Cynthia Villar on Friday, Jan. 22, during the continuation of the Senate hearing on the government’s vaccine program.
So far, WHO has already approved the Pfizer vaccines for its emergency use listing. Pfizer also has received emergency use approval in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines, among others. The UK was the first country to approve
Pfizer for emergency use on December 2 last year, and with this started its mass vaccination. US followed soon, approving the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use on Dec. 11.
-At least 4 vaccine brands to arrive by March 2021-
Galvez said that by March, four vaccine brands will be coming in under the COVAX facility. They include the vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson’s Novovax, and Sinovac, aside from Pfizer.
He said a “few hundred thousand” vaccine doses might be coming in by March from the COVAX facility.
Two other Chinese brands – Sinopharm and CanSino – also applied to be included in the facility.
“They said some of those vaccines that will be approved by them will definitely be deployed this this Q1 (first quarter),” Galvez said.
As to how many vaccine doses would be coming is still not definite, he said.
But Galvez said that he would also be asking for a mini-rollout of these vaccines for the country’s health workers.
-COVAX facility explained-
The COVAX facility is one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which was launched in April by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission and France in response to this pandemic.
Gavi, the vaccine alliance, said that COVAX which ensures equitable access for COVID-19 vaccines to all countries, especially the poor and developing countries.
“It is the only truly global solution to this pandemic because it is the only effort to ensure that people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are available, regardless of their wealth,” a statement from GAVI said.
The COVAX facility offers vaccine doses for at least 20 percent of countries’ populations, as well as “diverse and actively managed portfolio of vaccines.”
COVAX also assures that vaccines are “delivered as soon as they are available,” according to a WHO statement.
(Eagle News Service)
