MANILA, Philippines — Covax has guaranteed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine for 20 percent of the country’s population, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Monday.
“Ang COVAX, ang ating pag-uusap with them, yung ating arrangement with them, we are guaranteed for 20 percent of our population, but of course COVAX is explaining, you won’t get it all at the same time,” Vergeire said in a press briefing.
Vergeire earlier confirmed that the Philippines was among the 85 countries which had already submitted their requests to Covax, which is the vaccine arm of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.
The initiative seeks to speed up the development, production and “equitable access” to coronavirus tests, COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.
Vergeire, however, said that the vaccine from COVAX may not be given all at the same time.
“Mayroon tayong priority sa mga health workers na kung sakali, ito lang muna ang mabibigay nila for the second to third quarter of the year, yun muna ang uunahin. But definitely, guaranteed for 20% percent [ng population],” Vergeire said.
“Nung nag-usap kami I think that was Friday when we had our meeting, yun namaing mga organizers were pretty confident that all countries included in the COVAX facility would receive their allocations throughout next year,” she added.
As of December 20, there are nearly 460,000 COVID-19 cases in the country—of which 21,708 are considered active.