The Philippines will continue to receive COVID-19 vaccine allocation for 20 percent of the population through the COVAX Facility, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.
“We would like to clarify that we will continue to receive vaccine allocation for 20 percent of the population from COVAX,” the Health department and the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said in a statement.
COVAX Facility is a global procurement mechanism which invests in a broad portfolio of promising vaccine candidates to support their research, development, and manufacturing.
Despite the new developments, the Philippines’ vaccine cluster said the country will still push through with the 20-percent allocation.
“Previously, this entire 20 percent was to be provided to the country for free,” the vaccine cluster said.
However, based on the latest developments, only 15 percent will be free and “the remaining 5 percent will be paid by the country.”
The vaccine cluster said the budget for the five percent has already been secured.
“Hence, even with these changes in financing, rest assured that there will be no delays in delivery of the vaccines,” the vaccine cluster said.
“We remain to be on the right direction and that vaccines are arriving,” it vowed.
The vaccine cluster had earlier announced that the country is set to receive COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility within the first quarter of this year.