Galvez says PHL mass vaccine program won’t be delayed
(Eagle News) — The Philippines will not be affected by the recent decision of the European Union to restrict exports of the AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured inside EU, since the vaccine supplies secured by the country’s negotiators would be coming from Asia, particularly from India and Thailand.
This was assured by Philippine vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez himself.
He said that there will be no delays in the country’s vaccination program since the AstraZeneca vaccine doses that the Philippines had secured will not be coming from Europe.
Galvez said that there are 5.5 million to 9.2 million vaccine doses from AstraZeneca that were secured through the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility.
There are also supplies coming from the AstraZeneca plant in Thailand and from the Serum Institute of India (SII) which is considered the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.
Galvez noted what President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier observed — that the EU politics is coming into play when the EU bloc started pressuring the UK-based AstraZeneca because of vaccine supply problems it had recently encountered.
“Iyon po ang reyalidad na talagang ano po, sa ngayon nakita natin na may pulitika iyong UK at saka iyong EU kaya considering also that nakita natin na iyong British government is really limiting iyong the vaccine very much because of the UK variant. Nakita natin talaga na they are haggling for supply,” he said in a Laging Handa press briefing.
“Pero sa atin po wala tayong problema dahil kasi ang supply po natin ay galing po sa plant ng Thailand at saka mayroon po tayo na another plant sa Serum Institute of India na puwede po nating—magkaroon tayo ng tinatawag na tie-up and possibly doon po ma-resolve iyong logistical requirement po natin,” Galvez explained.
The vaccine czar also said that Thailand is basically the “Southeast Asian distributor” of the AstraZeneca vaccines in the region. He said that they are also scheduled to inspect their manufacturing plant.
“So wala po tayong problema dahil kasi po ang atin pong ano, sa Southeast Asian distributor is coming from the Thailand manufacturing at bukas (Wednesday) nga po ay magkakaroon kami ng inspection ng capacity ng kanilang planta,” Galvez said in a Laging Handa press briefing on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
(Eagle News Service)