Phl reserves P1.5B worth of vaccine

The reserved doses were a requirement under the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access facility which can treat three percent of the total population.

The Philippines has reserved three million doses of COVID-19 vaccines worth P1.5 billion that will be developed under the country’s participation in a global coronavirus facility, the Department of Science Technology (DoST) on Tuesday said.

DoST Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said that the reserved doses were a requirement under the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility which can treat three percent of the total population.

Peña said that COVAX allows the reservation of up to 20 percent but officials will need to initially determine how many doses are needed per vaccine before procuring more.

In estimation, each dose is expected to cost around $10 or P500.

He said that according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, about 60 percent of the population needs to be tested to acquire “herd immunity” within communities.

However, Peña noted that the government will only shoulder the vaccine allotted for communities below the poverty line while the distribution among other sectors will still be discussed.

“Our role is to negotiate and not to make collaborations in purchasing the vaccines,” he said.

Meanwhile, the DoST secretary said that other avenues of treatment are also currently being studied which include natural products such as the use of virgin coconut oil, lagundi, and tawa tawa because of their anti-viral properties.

He also said that the government is continuously engaging in collaborations with other countries with vaccines on advanced levels of clinical trials like China, Taiwan and Russia.

The Philippines is likewise part of the two trials headed by the World Health Organization — solidarity trial and clinical trial for vaccines — where Peña said Dr. Nina Gloriani has been nominated to be part of the global deciding committee for vaccines.

With no finalized vaccines yet, worldwide cases have climbed to 18.2 million with the total death toll approaching around 700,000 as shown in the data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States still has the most tally of cases at 4.7 million while the Philippines ranks at the 25th spot.