US sends equipment, test kits for PHL’S Covid-19 response
WASHINGTON recently donated health equipment and logistic kits to help the Philippines’s Covid-19 response. “Working with the international community has helped keep Filipinos and Philippines health systems at low risk through the worst parts of this pandemic,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire, as she expressed gratitude to the US government for the donation.
The donations include 18,000 rapid antigen and other test kits, with an additional hundred kits for schools and the Manila City Health Department. The US also provided Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s Taqpath Covid testing reagents for the Philippine Genome Center, which allows for 10,000 more tests. Also handed over to the Government of the Philippines were an assortment of personal protective equipment (PPES), among others.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in support of the Philippines’s vaccination and booster campaign, initiated a pediatric vaccination activity with a handover of Covid-19 aid and logistical equipment last August 6, 2022, at the Manila Zoo.
Present in the event were US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Ambassador to the Philippines Marykay Carlson and Manila City Mayor Maria Sheilah “Honey” H. Lacuna. They, along with other senior health and local officials, witnessed the latest of the USG’S donations to support the country’s Covid-19 prevention and control efforts since 2020.
“As the Philippines continues to work to vaccinate people, to reduce the spread and save lives, the United States stands with you,” Blinken said.
He also congratulated the Philippine government for its “commendable vaccination milestones and untiring efforts to combat the health and economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Through the COVAX Facility, the United States has donated more than 33 million vaccine doses to the Philippines, consisting of Pfizer, Moderna and J&J platforms.
Vaccination program
MEANWHILE, the Department of Health (DOH) committed to intensifying its vaccination efforts and vaccine storage management to reach the Marcos administration’s target of fully vaccinating 70 percent of the total population or about 78,100,578 Filipinos.
This is in addition to providing first boosters to 50 percent of those eligible, or 39,050,289 individuals.
Insofar as younger citizens are concerned, more than 9.7 million Filipino adolescents along with more than 4.2 million Filipino children have already been fully-vaccinated against Covid-19.
The DOH said it will be closely working with the country’s local government units (LGUS) to ensure all school-aged children will have access to the additional doses donated by the USG.
“We’ve come a long way from when this virus first hit our shores. With all the tools and resources we now have, we are capable of protecting our children and providing them the safe and much-needed face to face education that they deserve,” Vergeire said.