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MANILA: The Philippines will receive 2.6 million injections of a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca under the country’s first supply agreement for a coronavirus vaccine, senior officials said on Friday (November 27).
This supply, which will be paid for by the private sector, will inoculate more than 1 million Filipinos, since the British pharmaceutical vaccine requires two doses, said José Concepción, a government business advisor representing the private sector.
Carlito Gálvez, a senior official with the coronavirus task force, said authorities were also discussing a possible million more doses with AstraZeneca.
Those agreed on Friday would cover about 1 percent of the Philippines’ 108 million residents, two-thirds of whom the government hopes to inoculate. It is looking for between 20 and 50 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac and the US firm Pfizer, among others.
READ: When and what COVID-19 vaccines are likely to be available in Asia Pacific countries
AstraZeneca is one of five vaccine manufacturers that have requested to conduct late-stage trials in the Philippines and the supply agreement comes amid questions about the results of one of those studies elsewhere.
Several scientists have raised questions about the robustness of the results showing that it was 90 percent effective.
READ: AstraZeneca Says Its COVID-19 Vaccine Needs ‘Further Study’
“We want to end this nightmare. We are willing to take this risk,” Concepción said, emphasizing the urgent need to reopen the economy even more.
“The private sector is desperate.”
The $ 370 billion economy of the Philippines, which is among the fastest growing in Asia before the pandemic, sank further into recession in the third quarter as broad restrictions aimed at stifling some of the rates. highest infection rates in the region limited economic activity.
The private sector contingent, which includes industry groups and companies owned by tycoons with a collective value of tens of billions of dollars, will donate half of the 2.6 million doses to the government and administer the rest to its own employees. Concepción said. Shipping is expected in May.
Nearby Thailand has also reached an agreement with AstraZeneca.
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