The country has reserved three million vaccines worth at least P1.5 billion through the Gavi COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato dela Peña bared on Tuesday.
During a Palace press briefing, Secretary dela Peña said that COVAX requires that the country commits to a vaccine volume equivalent to a minimum of three percent of the population but assured that a volume equivalent to up to 20 percent can be procured once the vaccine becomes available.
The COVAX Facility is a mechanism designed to guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.
"Requirement 'iyon sa pagsali sa COVAX. Pero 'iyon ay sa assumption na one dose per person. Hindi pa tayo sure kung one dose o two doses ang kailangan sa ilalabas na vaccine (It is a requirement in joining COVAX. But it is on the assumption of one dose per person. We're not sure if one or two doses will suffice with the vaccine," he told Manila Bulletin.
He said during the briefing that most vaccines for diseases require two doses. One dose of the vaccine costs $10 or P500.
Secretary dela Pena mentioned that according to Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III, for a country to get "herd immunity", at least 60 percent of the population must be vaccinated. The World Health Organization (WHO) states “herd protection” of the unvaccinated occurs when a sufficient proportion of the group is immune.
Dela Pena disclosed that the government will be shouldering the costs for those who are living below the poverty level.
"All the rest di pa natin alam kung papano ang sistema, kung may subsidy ba ang gobyerno o kung kanya-kanyang bili na lang (All the rest we still don't know how the system will be or individual purchasing)," he said.
Dela Pena stated we would then be purchasing other vaccines outside of COVAX through our other collaborations. The country currently has five ongoing negotiations with five institutions that was allowed by the sub-technical working group of the (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases. Three of this is with China while two others are with Taiwan and they are ahead in terms of the clinical trials.
"In some of these, tapos na yung clinical trials phase three kaya kung matutuloy yung ating collaboration ay mag-clinical trials din dito pero for the purpose of meeting FDA requirements (Some of them are already done with the phase three of the clinical trials and if our collaboration will push through, we will also have clinical trials here but for the purpose of meeting FDA requirements)," Dela Pena said.
"Pero kung yung pag-uusapan ay yung aming WHO solidarity trials at saka yung bilateral agreements dito sa limang pinayagan dito. Siguro kung i-eestimate natin yung pagdadaanang proseso ay aabutin pa tayo ng middle of 2021 (But if we will talk about the WHO solidarity trials and the bilateral agreements with these five institutions if we will estimate the process we will reach the middle of year 2021," he added.
He said the government is not eliminating the possibility of dealing with the other bilateral partners such as Russia who have also reported significant advances in vaccine development. He said that the private sector and the government could procure vaccines as long as these are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"Ang gobyerno naman po through the DOH ay nag-aaral na kung papaano ang gagawing procurement at saka kung paano i-aallocate ang vaccines that will come from the government sector. Siyempre ang private sector pag available na ay pwede namang bumili for themselves. (The government through the DOH is currently studying the procurement process of the vaccines and how it will be allocated. The private sector can also purchase for themselves as soon as it is available)," he said.