MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has requested at least three million doses of the United States’ excess coronavirus vaccines, the official in charge of the government’s vaccine strategy said Wednesday.
The US earlier pledged to ship some 80 million vaccine doses overseas by the end of June. The shipments will include 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and at least an additional 20 million doses of shots authorized for use in US.
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“We requested for almost three million AstraZeneca and other vaccines considering that we know AstraZeneca will not be used in the US but they have stocks,” vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.
Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Romualdez earlier said the Philippines will be among the nations that will receive America’s surplus doses.
Galvez also said the Philippines will be one of the priority countries to be given excess shots.
“We’re hopeful that in that 80 million, we would have a big share there because the US knows we really need the [vaccines],” he said.
“If we’re given three to five million doses, that would be good already,” the vaccine czar added.
The US could distribute the vaccines through the COVAX global vaccine sharing initiative, Galvez said. COVAX seeks to boost COVID-19 inoculation programs in lower-income countries.
The US is the biggest COVAX donor.
As of May 30, 1.2 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, still far from the government’s initial goal of vaccinating 70 million this year to achieve herd immunity. Meanwhile, 3.9 million have received one of the two doses.