MANILA, Philippines — The COVAX Facility remains committed to donating bivalent COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines despite legal issues still being sorted out by authorities, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
“They (COVAX) are still very much interested to donate,”DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
Vergeire said the DOH is in contact with COVAX and that “they are not running away from their commitment” even with the legal situation that the state of calamity under Republic Act 11525, which allows the donation without threat of class action, no longer is in force.
“Within this vaccination law or RA 11525, there is that provision on indemnification and immunity from liability… that is being required by vaccine manufacturers,” she explained.
“When the state of calamity was lifted and that law expired, we are now faced with that challenge wherein there would be no basis for the government to sign this agreement,” she added.
Still, COVAX is ready to push through with the donation.
Vergeire said: “They told us that they will be waiting for us to come up with enough basis (to enter into this agreement).”
At present, the legalities of the donation is being discussed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) with the Office of the President through the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs and the Office of the Solicitor General, said the DOH.
“We started working on this as early as February and up until now, we are not seeing any remedy yet because, as I’ve been saying, there is no legal basis for the government to enter into this kind of agreement,” said Vergeire.
“The most concrete option we have now is our inclusion into the Center for Disease Control law or bill which, hopefully, will be passed June of this year, wherein the indemnification and immunity from liability clauses found in RA 11525 will be provided,” she said.
Earlier reports said the country was expecting to receive the first batch of bivalent COVID-19 vaccines donated by COVAX supposedly at the end of March, but that has passed.
In the event the donation of 1,002,000 doses of bivalent vaccines is accepted by the country, the DOH said those in the A1 (health care workers) and A2 (senior citizens) priority groups stand to benefit.
The bivalent vaccine targets both the original strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 and Omicron subvariants.
Telemedicine bill
Meanwhile, Ang Probinsyano party-list Rep. Alfred delos Santos has proposed legislation guidelines for telemedicine services now that COVID-19 cases are on the rise again.
House Bill 7727, authored by de los Santos, underscores the need to expand the scope of medical practice through telemedicine, amending Republic Act 2382 or the Medical Act of 1959.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created a paradoxical situation for many Filipinos. With soaring numbers of individuals falling prey to the deadly virus, the need to access medical services was at an all time high,” the bill’s explanatory note stated.
The measure pointed out that with the benefits of “leveraging modern technology to make many tasks, including medical consultations, more convenient and accessible, it would be in our best interest to institutionalize and improve these options.”
Delos Santos’ bill proposes access to telemedicine health services in medically underserved rural and urban areas; standardization, upgrading and maintenance of the distinct domain of telemedicine; regulation of the practice and operations of telemedicine and upholding of competence, values and professional ethics of physicians who will engage in the practice of telemedicine. – Sheila Crisostomo