Philippines to buy vaccine from Astrazeneca
MANILA: The Philippines is to take the first official step in its inoculation programme with the announcement it would sign a deal on Friday to purchase two million doses of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic vaccine from the United Kingdom ( UK) drugmaker Astrazeneca.
“This coming Friday, we will sign a tripartite agreement for the purchase of two million doses of vaccine from Astrazeneca of the UK,” Carlito Galvez, the vaccine “czar” told a media briefing on Thursday.
Galvez added representatives from private business firms are also to sign the agreement to buy the vaccines, one million doses of which they will use for their employees and the remaining one million to be donated to the government
Aside from Astrazeneca, the government is likewise considering separate purchases of the vaccine from other drugmakers like Pfizer of the US and Sinovac of China in its aim for the start of the initial inoculation of 60 million Filipinos out of its total population of 109 million in the coming year, according to Galvez.
Earlier, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), reported that the Astrazeneca vaccine requires refrigeration and temperatures easier to reach compared to other similar products being developed.
The vaccine, Swaminathan said, can be stocked and stored and is stable in temperatures of from two to eight degrees Celsius, compared to similar products that require a temperature of minus 75 °C.
“That, of course, has huge logistical advances,” Swaminatha said, “in transportation and delivery of the vaccine to the cities, towns and villages as well as remote rural areas around the world.”
According to Astrazeneca, its vaccine is 70 per cent effective in pivotal trials and could be up to 90 per cent effective as well as can be cheaper to produce. It said it also has the advantage of making it easier to distribute and faster to scale up than its rivals.
Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire joined other world health leaders in warning that the holiday season, highlighted by mass gatherings like family reunions could become a “super spreader” for the rise in COVID-19 infections.
“A mass gathering is a potential super spreader event, especially if we go to crowded places with no more one meter physical distancing,” warned Vergeire, alslo the health department spokesman.
Super spreading occurs, she explained, when transmission is suddenly amplified from a single person who spreads the virus to proportionately large number of contacts.