At least 30 million to 50 million doses of COVID- 19 vaccine could be available for Filipinos next year once it is rolled out abroad and in the Philippines.
National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said the task force is coordinating with vaccine experts in its evaluation on the right vaccine to procure.
Galvez said experts have ranked 17 possible sources of vaccines from other countries. Out of the candidate vaccines, nine are already in Phase 3 clinical trials.
He said that in Phase 3 trial, three would conduct trial in the country by December and January.
Galvez told the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) meeting last Tuesday at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang that the Philippines might enter into an Advance Market Commitment through multilateral arrangement with the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank ( ADB) as the country’s finance managers for the purchase of coronavirus vaccines. Galvez said the government could secure advance procurement by the end of the year and proceed with the signing of loan agreements with the financial institutions.
He said government could also tap various modes of financing including private-public tripartite agreement without cost to the government.
“Of course you have to worry about the procurement,” President Duterte said during the same IATF meeting, citing procedures such as bidding before purchase. “But there is also a way of not doing it. If it takes time, then I can go directly and just issue the order to buy and to vaccinate the population.”
The Department of Health yesterday emphasized the need to allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue an emergency use authorization (EUA) during the pandemic.
At a virtual briefing yesterday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said FDA needs the EUA to enable the country to purchase and use vaccines that have passed or are under phase 3 clinical trial.
Vergeire said the law did not provide the FDA authority to issue EUA for products like vaccines that are necessary at this time of pandemic, thus this needs an imprimatur from the President.
Vergeire said the FDA was already able to expedite the processing of vaccine registration to 21 days from 270 days prior to the pandemic.
With additional 1,383 cases, the DOH reported that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases nationwide jumped to 412,097 as of yesterday.
DOH noted that 90.9 percent or 374,666 of the total confirmed COVID cases have survived the infection. Included in the figure were 143 newly recorded recoveries.
Cavite posted the biggest number of new cases with 81, followed by Laguna with 74 and Batangas with 71. Quezon City recorded 69 new cases and Rizal registered 67.
A total of 29,474 comprising 7.2 percent of the total cases are active. Most or 92.1 percent of the active cases are mild and asymptomatic.
Ninety- five additional deaths brought to 7,957 the number of COVID-related fatalities. The number accounted for 1.93 percent of total cases nationwide.
DOH said 17 laboratories were unable to submit their data to the COVID-19 Data Repository System on Nov. 17.
– Edith Regalado, Mary Grace Padin, Mayen Jaymalin, Rainier Allan Ronda
Source: https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/the-philippine-star/20201119/281719797124404