DAVAO CITY – An official from a foreign government has reportedly reached out to the Davao City government, offering to provide much-needed vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) once the Philippine government issues an emergency use authorization (EUA).

This was disclosed by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, who added that, based on

the initial exchange of emails, the envoy told the city that their government has allowed its vaccine-maker to strike deals with any offshore buyers, aside from national governments.

The local chief executive did not disclose the foreign government.

Last Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Philippines plans to procure vaccines from Sinovac Biotech of China, Oxford-AstraZeneca of United Kingdom, and Pfizer-BioNTech of the United States next year.

Duterte said the offer of vaccines directly to Davao City was a “positive” development because the previous communications the city had with another pharmaceutical company, which said that it will only sell its COVID-19 vaccines to the Department of Health (DOH).

 “An official from another country listened to our radio broadcast and then they already reached out to us and there were initial exchanges of emails already. This is very positive because according to them they are allowed by their country to sell to whoever is the buyer,” she said.

However, Duterte added that they have yet to ascertain if the national government would allow a local government unit to buy directly from vaccine-makers.

Citing the envoy, Duterte said: “We do not know if you need the permission of the DOH to buy from us.”

Duterte said that the government has yet to give the EUA to any vaccine.

“We are waiting for that document also so that we will know what brand of vaccines will be given with the EUA by our national government so we can pursue them. But, as of now, we are not waiting for that because we are already seeking out company... if they will say ‘no,’ we will lose nothing because we are already in the middle of this pandemic. That is why, we are trying to reach out and talk and ask what are the possibilities available for LGU,” she said.

Duterte added that another vaccine-maker could provide vaccines to the city if it could participate in the phase 3 of the clinical trials.

“The only way to access, as of now, if we participate in clinical trials. Their advice to us was to write a letter and request that Davao City will be included in a clinical trial so that we can access the vaccines for our plans of voluntary vaccination for health and non-health frontliners,” she added. 

Davao City reverted to general community quarantine (GCQ) from modified GCQ last November 20, which was expected to last until 30, but has since been extended until the end of this year.

As of December 10, Department of Health-Davao reported a total of 10,520 cases in the region, with 2,459 active, 7,651 recoveries, and 410 deaths.

Of the total cases, Davao City reported 7,369, Davao de Oro with 483, Davao del Norte with 1,284, Davao del Sur with 784, Davao Occidental with 122, and Davao Oriental with 478.