ASTRAZENECA has delivered another 661,100 doses of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca to the Philippines in October, reaching the more than 10 million dose milestone in support of the country’s mass vaccination program.
AstraZeneca, in partnership with the national and local governments, and the private sector is on track to deliver millions more doses between now and early next year directly and through the Covax facility.
“Reaching the milestone of 10 million doses is a significant moment for the national mass vaccination program and has made a critical difference against the pandemic. Our collaboration with the government and private sector, which we define and practice as ‘bayanihan,’ is essential to our ongoing efforts to vaccinate people as quickly as possible during this pandemic,” said Lotis Ramin, AstraZeneca country president.
Joey Concepcion, Presidential adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder, also lauded the contribution of AstraZeneca in the country’s fight against Covid-19. He said a significant portion of the 10 million doses was allocated for the inoculation of our workers.
“The arrival of this latest batch will help ramp up the vaccination rollout among our workers as part of our effort to protect their ranks from the dreaded Delta variant. Having all of our workers vaccinated against Covid-19 will also contribute to the safe reopening of our economy that we are all hoping for in the last quarter of the year,” he added.
Secretary Carlito Galvez, chief implementer of the National Task Force against Covid- 19, said as the country battles the devastating impact of the Delta variant, 10 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses is a significant milestone.
“A continuous increase of our vaccination rates is what’s needed to get ahead of the virus, and we are thankful to our vaccine supply partners for supporting our mass vaccination objectives,” he said.
Since the first deliveries in early 2021, the vaccine has helped prevent hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and helped save tens of thousands of lives.
Clinical trials
In clinical trials, Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca demonstrated 100 percent efficacy against severe disease and hospitalization after two doses, and real-world evidence shows the vaccine is around 80 to 90 percent effective against severe disease due to World Health Organization-identified variants of concern.
Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has been shown to be generally well tolerated. Incidents of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia, an extremely rare blood disorder, have been reported in a small number of people who received the vaccine within 14 days of the first dose which reduced to rates expected in the general population after the second dose.
To date, more than 1.3 billion doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine have been released for supply to over 170 countries globally, and approximately two-thirds of these doses have been delivered to low-and lower-middle income countries.
More than 145 million doses of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca have been delivered through the Covax Facility. AstraZeneca was the first global pharmaceutical company to join Covax in June 2020 and continues to supply its Covid-19 vaccine globally at no profit during the pandemic period via Covax, complemented by direct deliveries to governments. (PR)