President Rodrigo Duterte has accused in his latest address the European Union of holding up supplies of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for other countries.
This, amid reports that the EU introduced a new mechanism allowing countries to restrict COVID-19 vaccine exports.
“Let us just hope for the best. The problem is ‘yung bakuna. For all of the brouhaha, ‘O mayroon kami rito nakita, mayroon kami…’ Saan? Eh ‘yung AstraZeneca hinostage ng European Union (The problem is the vaccine. For all the brouhaha, ‘we have vaccines here…’ Where? AstraZeneca was held hostage by the European Union),” Duterte stated.
National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr., however, assured that there will be no problem on the matter, saying that the country’s supply will come from a plant in Thailand and from the Serum Institute of India.
The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier urged rich nations fighting over supplies of COVID-19 vaccines to consider the situation of the poorer ones as hoarding fuels the flames of the pandemic.
Around three million COVID-19 vaccines will arrive this month from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca under the COVAX facility despite reported issues on vaccine control.
The government is now finalizing supply agreements within the month after signing term sheets with five vaccine suppliers, securing around 108 million doses.
Around 1.7 million health workers will be prioritized in the vaccination, followed by other frontliners and certain government personnel. The government is also planning the inclusion of economic frontliners among the first recipients of COVID-19 vaccines. – Report from Mark Fetalco
