MANILA, Philippines — Confounded by the problems Western nations are encountering in their COVID-19 vaccination programs, the Philippines will look to Asian nations on how to inoculate millions of people against the deadly respiratory disease that has already claimed more than 10,600 Filipino lives.
And on top of the list of Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. is India, the world’s top producer of Covid-19 vaccines, which has begun a program to inoculate at least 300 million Indians in the next seven months.
“We’re looking to India to teach us. We’re certainly not looking to the West. But we need to look elsewhere to teach us how to get it done,” the foreign affairs secretary said in a post on Twitter on Friday night.
India has the second most number of cases in the world—10.7 million cases with 154,000 fatalities–but it has also made the most number of vaccines and has begun the world’s biggest inoculation drive, starting with three million healthcare workers who were vaccinated over the past two weeks.
The South Asian nation has one of the world’s biggest drug-making capacity and the Serum Institute of India has been licensed by Oxford University and British-Swedish drug firm AstraZeneca to produce Covishield, as the vaccine is called in India.
No shortage
The Indian government has also granted emergency use authorization to Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International to make Covaxin, that was developed by Indian scientists.
Unlike Western nations, India has no shortage of vaccine shots and has even begun to export the drug.
Another country with potential is Vietnam, which has been lauded for managing its first wave of infections well and developing its own vaccines within months after the start of the pandemic.
Vietnamese firm Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology made Vietnam’s first coronavirus vaccine, called Nanocovax, and has tested it in human trials that were initially assessed to be effective.
Vietnam also has three other vaccines under development by the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals, the Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.
Bharat Biotech has also asked the Philippine Food and Drug Administration to grant an emergency use authorization so the vaccine can be used in the country, which is targeting to vaccinate around 70 million against Covid-19 by the end of 2021.
The government said the first batch of vaccines will arrive in February, with one million health-care workers as the first beneficiaries of the Philippine vaccination program.
But experts are concerned that the country does not have the cold-chain storage needed for the vaccines once they arrive and lawmakers have urged authorities to ensure that electricity would remain uninterrupted through the inoculation period.
Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera urged the government to ensure the country would have reliable power supply when vaccinations begin.
“We cannot risk spoilage of the vaccines because of brownouts,” Herrera said.