The Interagency Working Group on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) approved the Philippines’ participation in a global coronavirus facility that is helping to make certain equivalents to vaccines opposed to coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19), Malacaang said Friday.
The Palace’s spokesman, Harry Roque Jr., said the IATF “approved the Philippines’ involvement in the installation of Gavi Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), the corresponding allocation of funds.”
Gavi, a foreign organization created to access new and underutilized vaccines, co-directs COVAX with the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness and the World Health Organization, in collaboration with vaccine manufacturers.
The World Health Organization (WHO) described the facility as a “mechanism designed to make Covid-19 vaccines fast, fair and equitable around the world.”
More than 150 countries have joined the facility, which aims to provide two billion effective doses and vaccines that have passed regulatory approval by the end of 2021.
“These vaccines will be distributed in a similar way to all the countries involved, in proportion to their population, first prioritizing fitness personnel and then expanding to a 20 canopy consistent with the percentage of the population of the countries involved,” WHO said.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in his recent public address, sought the immediate purchase of a vaccine for the treatment of Covid-19, once it is available.
Duterte also renewed his plan to borrow or sell government assets for the purchase of the vaccine.
“If there is one thing evolved that is smart for you, mauna ako (I will take the initiative). Mangutang ako. We will be able to buy drugs (I will borrow cash [or] sell public intelligence to buy drugs [or vaccines] as opposed to Covid-19), he said.
To date, the country now has 74,390 shown Covid-19 with 48,136 active infections.
Some 1,871 more people died and another 24,383 people recovered from the virus.