The British Embassy in Manila on Wednesday announced the launching of the United Kingdom-Philippines Vaccine Clinic to help in the safe delivery of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccine in the Philippines.
Together with the University of the Philippines – College of Public Health, the knowledge-exchange clinic pools technical resources between the UK and the Philippines to share learning on safely delivering the vaccine.
British Ambassador Daniel Pruce said the clinic echoes the Philippine government’s ‘one of society’ approach in tackling COVID-19 and demonstrates the Filipino value of ‘walang iwanan’ (nobody is left behind).
“It is only by working together that we can end this global pandemic. And the UK, through the British Embassy in Manila, remains committed to supporting Filipinos access to vaccines, developed under transparent mechanisms and delivered safely and effectively,” Pruce said during the inaugural session on February 10, 2021.
The UK Prosperity Fund-backed series will convene technical, scientific, and policy experts from the UK Vaccine Task Force, the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies, Health Education England and the National Health Service in sessions covering the following: deployment and procurement strategies; community-based vaccine delivery and administration; and tackling vaccine hesitancy.
Earlier, the British government has allocated £548m to the United Nations-led COVAX Advance Market Commitment, which is aiming to distribute 1 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines to 92 developing countries this year.
Early this month, the Global Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) designated the Philippines as among the first countries that could receive an indicative distribution of up to 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines; mostly of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine developed in the United Kingdom through the COVAX Global Vaccines Facility. It is expected that the vaccine will start being available for delivery from the first quarter of 2021.
National Task Force (NTF) chief Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., thanked the British government for its support in helping the vaccination of about 9 million Filipinos in the first half of 2021
League of Cities Vaccine Procurement Committee Chair and Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas encouraged local governments to participate in the learning exchange webinars which he said will be of great help for local governments to inform strategies in administering vaccines through local health systems.