RELATED: Duterte wants ‘healthy’ police, military in COVID-19 vaccine distribution
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 24) – The Philippine government will borrow ₱73.2 billion from three external sources to fund its rollout of COVID-19 vaccines once they become available in the market, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III revealed.
Dominguez first mentioned they will borrow around ₱40 billion from multilateral agencies such as the Asian Development Bank and World Bank.
Some ₱20 billion will be borrowed from domestic financing sources like the Landbank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines, and other related government-owned and -controlled corporations.
The finance chief added the remaining ₱13.2 billion will come from their negotiations with other countries which produce COVID-19 vaccines.
“It depends on the source of vaccine. Either England or US or whoever,” Dominguez said during the weekly Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) meeting on Monday.
Dominguez explained the average cost of a vaccine per person, not per dose, is around $25 or around ₱1,250.
The proposed ₱73.2 billion expenditure for the government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the country is equivalent to 60 million Filipinos up for vaccination, he emphasized.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the amount can help the country achieve a herd immunity, which according to World Health Organization’s standards should be around 60-70 percent of the total national population. The Philippines has a total population of nearly 110 million people.
“If we’re able to reach that, we’re going to pretty much arrest the spread (of the virus) in our society,” Duque said.
National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. previously said the earliest possible rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the country may happen from May to July 2021
Galvez added during the IATF-MEID meeting that five vaccine manufacturers are slated to perform their vaccine trials in the country which include British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, Chinese company Sinovac, Russian vaccine manufacturer Gamaleya, American medical firm Johnson & Johnson, and an unnamed Chinese vaccine maker.
Under the approved 2021 national budget by the House of Representatives, only ₱2.5 billion was allocated for COVID-19 vaccines. The Department of Health said an additional ₱10.5 billion budget is needed for the distribution of vaccines in the country next year.
President Rodrigo Duterte emphasized the poor, frontliners, and other vulnerable sectors should be the first to receive the vaccine once it becomes available in the country. He said the police and military also have to be prioritized because he needs “healthy” security forces for vaccine rollout.
The country’s total COVID-19 cases are now at 420,614 of whom 25,837 or 6.1 percent are currently ill patients. Some 8,173 persons died and 386,604 patients recovered from the viral disease.
