The United States Embassy in Manila on Friday confirmed the inclusion of the Philippines among the priority countries to receive its share from the initial batch of 25 million doses of coronavirus vaccines that the US intends to donate globally.
In a virtual media briefing on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the US-Philippines diplomatic relations, US Charge d’Affaires John Law said the initial batch is part of the 80 million vaccine doses that President Joe Biden announced last month to be distributed through the COVAX facility.
“The initial tranche of at least 25 million doses, the Philippines will be included. And I think that as we continue to see vaccine production increase in the months to come, that we’ll be going to see in every increasing stronger momentum of vaccine delivery from the US to countries all around the world, and certainly the Philippines is going to be an important part of that,” Law said.
On Thursday, the White House said 19 million doses out of the 25 million of the first tranche will be sent to the COVAX facility while the remaining seven million will be allocated to the following countries: Philippines, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan and the Pacific Islands.
Law explained that the US is channeling most of its vaccine assistance through the COVAX facility whose intent is to distribute, vaccines all throughout the world in an as equitable manner as possible. The US is the world’s largest contributor to the COVAX program with an initial contribution of $2 billion and a pledge of another $2 billion for next year.
The COVAX target for the Philippines, according to Law, is to vaccinate approximately 1 in every 5 Filipinos or at least 44 million doses of vaccines that will be administered under the program.
While the US diplomat did not provide any calendar dates on the succeeding arrival of vaccines, he, however, assured that the Philippines will see in the very near future an additional arrival of some Pfizer vaccines through the COVAX facility.
On May 18, President Biden said the US is increasing its planned global donation from 60 million AstraZeneca vaccines to 80 million by adding 20 million doses of Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson and Johnson jabs.
“America will never be fully safe while this pandemic is raging globally. That’s why today, I’m announcing that over the next six weeks we will send 80 million vaccine doses overseas. It is the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do. It is the strong thing to do,” Biden said in his May 18 announcement.