Duterte asks China's Xi: Prioritize Philippines' access to COVID-19 vaccine
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday he had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to prioritize the Philippines when it develops a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
Duterte—who is fostering better ties with Beijing—disclosed this during his fifth State of the Nation Address.
“Four days ago, I made a plea to President Xi Jinping that if they have the vaccine, can they allow us to be the one of the first or if it is needed, if we have to buy it that we will be granted credit so we can normalize as fast as possible,” the chief executive said.
The coronavirus pandemic is showing no signs of slowing down in the Philippines, with the national caseload reaching 82,040 as of Monday—65% of which are active cases.
Early in his speech, Duterte told the public not to despair because the vaccine against COVID-19 is “around the corner.”
Laboratories across the world are racing to produce a vaccine to help end the health crisis that has already infected 16.2 million people globally. But World Health Organization said last week that COVID-19 vaccinations cannot be expected until early 2021.
The Philippines recently joined the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, which aims to help ensure fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. Under the COVAX facility, vaccines will be initially delivered equally to all participating countries, initially prioritizing health care workers, then expanding to cover 20% of the population.
The government’s task force on pandemic response also approved the country’s participation in clinical trials conducted by Chinese biopharmaceutical companies developing their own COVID-19 vaccines.
China’s Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm as well as the University of Oxford were the three companies moving into Phase III trials of COVID-19 vaccine development.
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