The Philippines has already signed the proposed indemnification agreement of the COVAX facility, which is needed before the first batch of vaccines can be delivered to COVID-19 under the initiative of the World Health Organization.
About 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine through the COVAX facility are expected to arrive in the Philippines by mid-February.
But due to Pfizer’s requirement for the Philippines to provide indemnification or compensation to those who will have adverse or adverse effects on the vaccine, its arrival has been delayed.
“Napirmahan na po namin nina Sec. Duque at saka ni Sec. Dominguez yung proposed COVAX indemnification agreement. Yung bola po nasa kanila ngayon. ‘Yun na po ang ating indemnification agreement ay napag-agree-han na atin pong isumite sa COVAX,” said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez.
(Sec. Duque and then Sec. Dominguez signed the proposed COVAX indemnification agreement. The ball is in them now. That is, our indemnification agreement has been agreed for by us to submit to COVAX.)
If an indemnification agreement is reached, according to Galvez, there will be no barrier to the arrival of vaccines.
Also read: Filipina develops blood disease after getting Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
PH submits indemnification agreement to COVAX
However, the bill that compensates those who will experience adverse effects from the COVID-19 vaccines should also be certified as urgent.
It is still at the committee level in the Senate.
The COVID-19 vaccine indemnification fund of the Department of Finance is at P500 million.
Galvez admitted that it is possible that the vaccine supply will continue to be scarce until the first half of the year but he still expects 1 to 3 million doses of the vaccine within the first 3 months of 2021.
“First quarter or second quarter magkakahirapan pa rin tayo dahil kasi ‘yong karamihan ng mga western vaccine ay ginagamit po ng mga taga-Europe at saka ng Amerika po.”
(In the first quarter or second quarter, we will still have a hard time because most of the western vaccines are used by Europeans and then Americans.)
Also read: PH to get 25M COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna, Arcturus – envoy
Europeansof or relating to or characteristic of Europe or the people of EuropeMore (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation)