US to donate 1M more coronavirus vaccines to PHL
THE UNITED States is set to donate as many as one million doses of coronavirus vaccines to the Philippines, Manila’s envoy to Washington said on Thursday.
The 800,000 to one million doses are part of the 18 million vaccine vials that the US will give to various countries, Ambassador Jose Manuel D. Romualdez said at a televised interview with Palace spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr.
The vaccines would be either from Moderna, Inc. or AstraZeneca Plc, Mr. Romualdez said. The vaccines would probably arrive next month.
Mr. Romualdez said Manila would also get “a substantial amount of doses” from the 500 million vaccine vials donated by America “to the world.”
The US government would donate about 80 million vaccine vials globally, according to a White House statement on June 3. Of the total, at least 75% will be shared through a global initiative for equal access, which will allocate roughly seven million doses to Asian countries, including the Philippines.
The Philippines earlier negotiated for the purchase of about 20 million doses of Moderna vaccines. The first batch of which will arrive before the end of the month, Mr. Romualdez said.
The Philippines has so far received about 10.8 million doses of coronavirus vaccines. About 8.4 million doses have been administered as of June 20.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health reported 3,666 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 1.37 million.
The death toll rose by 60 to 23,809, while recoveries increased by 6,810 to 1.29 million, it said in a bulletin.
There were 52,696 active cases, 1.4% of which were critical, 91% were mild, 4.2% did not show symptoms, 2% were severe and 1.40% were moderate.
The agency said 11 duplicates had been removed from the tally, eight of which were tagged as recoveries.
A total of 56 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths. Twelve laboratories failed to submit data on June 20, the agency said.
About 13.6 million Filipinos have been tested for the coronavirus as of June 19, according to DoH’s tracker website.
The coronavirus has sickened about 179.6 million and killed 3.9 million people worldwide, according to the Worldometers website, citing various sources including data from the World Health Organization. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza and Vann Marlo M. Villegas
