MANILA – The Philippines is in talks with other countries for their unused or leftover AstraZeneca coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine.
Israel, United Kingdom, and United States (US) were offered to be the country’s alternative sources of AstraZeneca’s jab aside from the Covax facility according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.
“We are looking to procure around one to three million of United States’ AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines since they said that they will be releasing it once available,” Galvez said on Thursday.
The US will release up to 60 million doses of the vaccine since it has not been authorized by its Food and Drug Administration.
According to Galvez, who also serves as the chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, Health secretary Francisco Duque III appealed to Israel for its excess vaccines. Israel previously announced it is no longer interested in its pending AstraZeneca vaccine deliveries.
The Philippines has so far received 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca jabs from the COVAX facility, almost all of which have been administered. The next delivery has a tentative schedule of arrival this May.
Earlier this month, the country resumed the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on people 60 years old and below after it was halted due to blood clot incidents in other countries./PN
