PH gov't, private firms close to securing add'l 3.7-M doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

MANILA - The Philippine government and several private firms' second batch of order of vaccines from AstraZeneca is "close" to completion, one of President Rodrigo Duterte's advisers said Sunday.

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The government and private sector ordered an additional 3.7 to 3.8 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine, said presidential adviser on entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion.

This is on top of the 2.6 million doses that were secured in the first batch and are expected to arrive in May, he said. 

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"Siguro, mga close to 240 companies ang sumali dito sa Part 2. 'Di pa tapos lahat kasi ginagawa namin ang documents. Pero close na, kasi yung MHRA (UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) ng AstraZeneca, lumabas na... Syempre, maganda yung balita, yung AstraZeneca approved na sila sa MRHA. Meaning, they can already start selling the vaccines," Concepcion told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

(Close to 240 companies joined the second order. It's not yet completed because we're still processing documents. But it's close to completion already because the MHRA has approved AstraZeneca, meaning they can already start selling the vaccines.)

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"Kalahati ng binili namin, ido-donate namin sa government. So, meron din para sa government, 'yung mga frontliners nila."

(Half of what we bought, we'll donate to government. So they also have vaccine for their frontliners.)

Doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, which has an efficacy rate of 70.4 percent, will be rolled out in Britain from Monday, officials have said.

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