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Galvez: Philippines negotiating 20M to 40M doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine; US to give excess jabs to ally countries
The Philippines is currently negotiating for 20 to 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from American drug firm Pfizer-BioNTech, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. disclosed Tuesday.
“Natutuwa po kami sa Pfizer on their commitment… kasi we are negotiating 20 million to 40 million doses po ito,” Galvez said in an interview on ANC television.
(We are happy over Pfizer's commitment because we are negotiating 20 to 40 million doses.)
Galvez acknowledged Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel “Babes” Romualdez’s help in pushing for the negotiations with Pfizer.
Apart from that, Galvez said the US also offered to give their excess COVID-19 vaccines to their allied countries like the Philippines.
“Nakita po namin by July 4, once na matapos ang inoculation sa US, sinabi naman po ng US they would spare some of their excess doses to their allied countries,” Galvez said.
(We are seeing that by July 4 when the US is done with their inoculation ... they've said that they would spare some of their excess doses to their allied countries.)
So far, the United States has administered 187,047,131 doses of COVID-19 vaccines
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The vaccine czar said he expects that the COVID-19 vaccine supply will “ease out” by middle of the year.
Romualdez recently said that Pfizer and Moderna will be able to deliver their COVID-19 vaccines to the country "not too far away from now” as vaccine supplies are already stabilizing.
“Over and above sa bilateral natin ay magkakaroon tayo sa COVAX, ibig sabihin pag nag-succeed tayo sa COVAX, we will also succeed to have some excess dosage from Pfizer through donations from our other ally countries,” he added.
The Philippines is one of the countries that will receive Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility in the second quarter of 2021.
The COVAX Facility is a World Health Organization-backed initiative that seeks to ensure equitable access to vaccines, especially poorer nations.
Earlier, the World Bank and the Gavi vaccine alliance urged countries with excess COVID-19 vaccine supplies to start releasing them as soon as possible. — Hana Bordey/RSJ, GMA News