Duterte: 10 countries cornered 75% of world vaccine supply

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said that 75 percent of the global supply of  COVID-19 vaccines have been purchased by at least 10 countries.

“Magkaintindihan na lang tayo na itong problema, atin lahat. How many countries? Ilan pa lang ang mayroon, again 75% nandiyan lang sa sampu, ang iba pati tayo wala,” Duterte said in his weekly address.

“Canada nga na kapitbahay ng America, nagdadamutan pa sila. Kino-corner talaga ng America ngayon kasi they have… 332 million (people),” he added.

The President also advised the public to wait and to follow government instructions.

More than 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered in at least 107 countries and territories, according to the Agence France-Presse tally based on official sources on Saturday.

Some 45 percent of vaccinations took place in countries belonging to the wealthy G7 club (United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan), whose members account for just 10 percent of the global population.

Meanwhile, 92 percent of doses worldwide have been given in countries classified by the World Bank as "high-income" or "upper-middle income", accounting for around half of the global population.

In a joint statement on February 10, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) executive director Henrietta Fore and World Health Organization (WHO) director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that of the COVID-19 vaccine doses administered so far, more than three quarters are in just 10 countries that account for 60 percent of global gross domestic product.

As of February 10, UNICEF and WHO said almost 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, are yet to administer a single dose.

“This self-defeating strategy will cost lives and livelihoods, give the virus further opportunity to mutate and evade vaccines and will undermine a global economic recovery.”

Further, UNICEF and WHO called on leaders “to look beyond their borders and employ a vaccine strategy that can actually end the pandemic and limit variants.”

“We need global leadership to scale up vaccine production and achieve vaccine equity. COVID-19 has shown that our fates are inextricably linked. Whether we win or lose, we will do so together,” they said.

The Philippines aims to vaccinate some 50 to 70 million Filipinos from COVID-19 this year, with the country allocating some P73.2 billion for the procurement. The amount includes P40 billion coming from multilateral agencies, P20 billion from domestic sources, and P13.2 billion from bilateral agreements.

According to the government's vaccination roadmap, health workers and frontliners from select government offices will be the first to receive the vaccine, followed by indigent senior citizens, other senior citizens, and other indigents. -- BAP, GMA News