BACOLOD City – A five-member committee of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) will meet vaccine czar secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and representatives of pharmaceutical companies to determine and recommend courses of action that may enable the country’s 145 cities to purchase their own coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines.
Bacolod City’s Mayor Evelio Leonardia, LCP national president, confirmed the scheduled meetings in a memorandum recently issued to the city mayors, where he also announced the creation of the Committee on Vaccine Availment chaired by Mayor Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City.
Leonardia underscored the need to strategize their efforts to ensure early access to quality and affordable vaccines.
“But we need to gather as much information as possible to guide our decisions,” the mayor said stressed.
URGENT TALKS
For his part, Treñas said there was an urgent need to discuss the procurement of vaccines for each local government unit.
The LCP will hold a dialogue on Jan. 1 with officials of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, including Galvez (chief implementer), Defense secretary Delfin Lorenza (chair) and Interior secretary Eduardo Año (vice chair).
They will also initiate exploratory talks spearheaded by the LCP Secretariat with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and other qualified manufacturers in the first week of January.
“We are willing to help the national government protect our people through having our own funding in addition to what they will be giving us,” Treñas said.
Earlier, United States-based drug manufacturer Pfizer applied for emergency use authorization of its coronavirus vaccine in the Philippines.
The Pfizer vaccine is already being administered to residents in the US. It was the first vaccine to receive an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, with a 95 percent efficacy rate after two doses given a few weeks apart.
On the other hand, the national government may sign a deal with British-Swedish multinational and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca by the end of December for the supply of COVID-19 vaccine once the government of United Kingdom issues a health regulatory authorization.
AstraZeneca pegged its price at only $5, or more or less P500 for two jabs of its COVID-19 vaccine with 75 percent efficacy rate.
The vaccine, known as AZD1222, was co-developed with the Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group. Administered by intramuscular injection, the vaccine uses as a vector a modified chimpanzee adenovirus.
COMMITTEE ON VACCINE AVAILMENT
The primary function of the committee is to coordinate with the national government’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases, the Department of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Budget and Management, and other concerned agencies to carry out collective and advantageous vaccine availment by the cities; and undertake other activities related to vaccine procurement.
The members of the Committee on Vaccine Availment include Mayor Ronnel Rivera of General Santos City, national vice chairman; Mayor Francis Garcia of Balanga City, vice president for Luzon; Mayor Eric Singson of Candon City, focal mayor for health; and Mayor Beng Climaco of Zamboanga City, regional representative for Region 9.
The committee is expected to submit its recommendations to Leonardia on or before Jan. 8, 2021.
To recall, Leonardia also formed the Bacolod City COVID-19 Vaccination Council tasked to plan and implement a vaccination roadmap, based on Executive Order 83 released on Dec. 24./PN
