The government could spend about 1.5 billion pesos on the country’s stake in the global Covid-19 (new coronavirus) vaccine facility (Covax), according to the Ministry of Science and Technology (DOST).
At an online press conference tuesday, Angeles Secretary of Science and Technology Fortunato Pea revealed that this was the country’s estimated position for inoculacists in laughing at least 3% of his populos angelestion vaccine being developed through Gavi’s Covax.
He said this is Gavi’s condition for the country to use its Covid-19 vaccine once it becomes available.
Gavi is a foreign public-private organization based in Geneva that aims to facilitate the distribution of vaccines in the country, especially in poor countries.
As the government aims to supply the vaccine developed through Covax, which is expected to charge 500 P according to the dose, to 3 million Filipinos initially, Dela Pea said it would spend at least 1.5 billion pesos.
He said the Interagency Working Group on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) already had the initial allocation for the Covax vaccine.
However, the head of DOST stated that his budget may increase depending on the amount of doses needed for a person to enter into force, as well as whether the government chooses to vaccinate a greater part of its population.
He said the government can simply buy enough Covid vaccines from Gavi to cover up to 20% of its population.
“But this will be once the vaccine is already being released [on the market],” Dela Pea said.
He said others living below the poverty line will have priority to get the government’s Covid-19 vaccine.
“Everyone else [of the other social classes], we still don’t know the formula [to implement] whether it will be subsidized by the government or if they will have to buy it [vaccine] on their own,” Dela Pea explained. .
The Ministry of Finance (DOF) said earlier that the government is willing to spend 20 billion pesos to buy the Covid-19 vaccine from other countries, which will be able to supply it.
In addition to Covax, the government is now also buying Covid vaccines that are being developed in China and other countries to meet their demand.
Based on the Ministry of Health (DOH) assessment, Dela Pea said the country will have to vaccinate at least 60% of its population in order for there to be collective immunity from Covid-19.
On its website, the Mayo Clinic stated that collective immunity “occurs when a giant component of a network (the herd) becomes immune to the disease, so the disease is unlikely to spread from one user to another. As a result, the entire network becomes – not just those that are immunized.
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