WHO eyes COVAX-provided vaccines for 20% of Filipinos in 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) is optimistic that 20% of Filipinos will be vaccinated against COVID-19 under the COVAX facility this year, with the arrival of 4.5 million additional doses in the next month.

At a virtual briefing, WHO representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility is pushing to meet the goal of inoculating 20% of the Philippine population or 22 million Filipinos this year.

"We are optimistic that we will be able, through the COVAX, to provide vaccines to protect 20% of the Philippine population this year," he said.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimates the country's population at 109.947 million, with the government aiming to vaccinate 70 million this year.

Abeyasinghe on Tuesday said some 4.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines are on track to arrive in the country before May, adding to the initial batch of 525,600 doses from the same manufacturer that arrived this month.

In the same briefing, Abeyasinghe expressed support to the "vaccination passports" to be able to open up the economy further.

"It is necessary for people to have some sort of evidence that they were vaccinated. We are looking closely at other countries and what practices they are adopting," he told reporters.

"We are not saying that vaccine passports should be used to limit people as movement or access to employment or travel, but it will help in the opening up of economic activity, it will help people to continue to work and so there is a place for evidence of people having been vaccinated," he added.

At present, the Philippines has 1.1 million doses of vaccines -- 525,600 doses from the COVAX facility, and 600,000 Sinovac vaccines donated by the Chinese government. Vaccines procured by the government have yet to arrive. -MDM, GMA News