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TO AVERT CROSSING THE 'RED LINE'

Pangilinan appeals to WHO to put Philippines on top of list of Covax facility beneficiaries


Senator Francis Pangilinan on Thursday appealed to the World Health Organization (WHO) to put the Philippines on top of the list of beneficiaries under its Covax facility to allow the urgent delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

Pangilinan made the remark after the WHO itself expressed concern over the renewed surge in COVID-19 cases in the Philippines which, if left unattended, could result in the country crossing the "red line," a situation where the number of cases exceeds the healthcare capacity.

"We are appealing and urging the WHO to put the Philippines in front of the list of vaccine recipients," Pangilinan said in a virtual interview with reporters.

"Kung 'yan na mismo ang observation ng WHO, then therefore ang panawagan natin sa WHO is unahin tayo dito sa Covax facility, tayo ang bigyan ng priority na ma-turn over na ang vaccines so that we will be able to speed up 'yung vaccine rollout," he said.

(If that's the observation of WHO, then our appeal is to put us on top of the list of the Covax facility, give us priority in the turnover of vaccines so we can speed up the vaccine rollout.)

Covax is a globally-pooled vaccine procurement and distribution effort co-led by the WHO, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

The Philippines has so far reported 819,164 COVID-19 cases, including 14,059 deaths.

Pangilinan said that the Philippines cannot ramp up its vaccine rollout due to the lack of supply. He said that in his monitoring of the vaccine rollout in Quezon City, for instance, the number of vaccinations only reach an average of 500 to 600 per district.

This, he said, is not enough and the city government could not increase the number of vaccinations as there are not enough supplies.

The senator urged the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 to support his call.

"We're calling on the IATF, NTF to aggressively and vigorously pursue these negotiations with the WHO," he said.—AOL, GMA News

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