World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe on Tuesday assured that the estimated 5.5 million to 9.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, expected by the second quarter of this year from the Covax Facility, will “not be at risk” given that “the Philippines met all the requirements for AstraZeneca.”
“What we are now looking at is accelerating delivery of those AstraZeneca vaccines [to the Philippines],” Abeyasinghe said during the online Kapihan session of the Department of Health (DOH).
Abeyasinghe also said that they are hoping that before the end of this week they will hear from AstraZeneca as to when they will deliver to the Philippines the needed vaccines.
He said that the AstraZeneca has three facilities – Europe, India and South Korea. The facility in South Korea, he said, is “exclusively manufacturing” for the Covax facility.
The WHO official also expressed optimism that the country would be able to achieve its goal to vaccinate 20 percent of the population before end of this year.
He cited two reasons behind the issues on equity and access in vaccine distribution.
Abeyasinghe said that first, “approximately, 80 percent of the global vaccine output currently being absorbed by high-income countries; and second issue is that vaccination programs [have] yet to commence in many low and middle income countries.”
“Related to that, also, is the limited manufacturing capacity that manufacturers have ,” he said adding that they are expecting that manufacturers will produce more vaccines.
He said the output of some manufacturers were “not as high” as expected citing the problem on “biological processes” encountered by manufacturers.
“All these have contributed to the current situation where we are seeing concerns about equitable access to vaccines,” he said.
He added that these issues were even raised by WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the WHO remains to be concerned on the lack of vaccines for population who are at risk like healthcare workers, and those who are vulnerable in low income countries.
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