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Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to supply the Philippines with more than 3 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine through the private sector, Presidential Advisor for Entrepreneurship José María “Joey” Concepción 3 said on Sunday.
He said AstraZeneca approved the second part of the vaccine donation agreement with the private sector.
“We are pleased to announce that with sufficient support and, of course, demand from the private sector, the second part is already underway,” Concepción said.
He made the announcement two weeks after the government and private sector signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to purchase 2.6 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Half of the 2.6 million vaccines, expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2021, will be donated to the government, while the other half will be for private sector employees.
With the approval of the request from the private sector, Concepción said that donations from the private sector could exceed 3 million.
“This development is really fantastic. I thank the Astra group for their efforts to really help the Philippines, “he said.
Concepción highlighted that after signing the agreement with AstraZeneca, his group received inquiries from the private sector requesting more allocation, for which they asked the vaccine manufacturer to allow them to have a second batch.
“Our Filipino people can rest assured that we will not be left behind. We will soon see this pandemic disappear, ”he said.
AstraZeneca previously reported that its vaccine is 70 percent effective against Covid-19.
Last week, the UK-based pharmaceutical firm withdrew its application to conduct clinical trials in the country.
The Food and Drug Administration, however, said that despite the recall, AstraZeneca is still able to supply the country with its Covid vaccine.
It was not the first pharmaceutical company to cancel phase 3 clinical trials. The Chinese company Sinopharm abandoned its plans to conduct trials in October, saying it will supply its Covid vaccine to the Philippines instead.
lower
On Sunday, the Health Department reported 1,085 new cases of coronavirus, the lowest in nine days.
This brings the total number of cases to 449,400, of which 21,980 are active.
The country registered 934 cases on December 4, the lowest in five months.
Meanwhile, the total number of recoveries rose to 418,687 after the country recorded 9,269 new survivors.
Only three patients were reported to have succumbed to the virus on Sunday for a total of 8,733 deaths.
Worldwide, deaths from Covid-19 reached 1.6 million, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
The global death toll reached 1,600,807, with a total of more than 71.4 million cases worldwide as of 1:26 pm (1826 GMT), CSSE data showed.
The United States remains the most affected country, with 15,939,022 cases and 296,656 deaths, representing more than 18 percent of the world’s death toll.
Brazil recorded 180,437 deaths, while India reported 142,628 deaths and a number of cases of more than 9.8 million.
Countries with more than 50,000 deaths also include Mexico, Great Britain, Italy, France and Iran.
A model forecast updated by the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected a total of 502,256 deaths from Covid-19 in the United States by April 1, 2021, based on the current projection scenario.
WITH XINHUA
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