Ambassador Thunborg welcomed the arrival of 1.8M AstraZeneca doses in the Philippines

Photo: Embassy of Sweden in Manila

Sweden’s Ambassador Annika Thunborg, together with Country President of AstraZeneca Philippines Lotis Ramin and British Ambassador Laure Beaufils, recently welcomed the arrival of 1.8M AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses in the Philippines.  

According to the Embassy of Sweden in Manila, this is the final batch of the 16.5M doses procured through the multilateral agreements among the national government, local government units, Swedish-British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and the private sector to help Filipinos through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

These vaccines will play a crucial role during the Omicron surge, the Embassy states. Results from a preliminary analysis of an ongoing trial showed that COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca, when given as a third dose booster, increased the immune response to Beta, Delta, Alpha, and Gamma SARS-CoV-2 variants, while a separate analysis of samples from the trial showed an increased antibody response to the Omicron variant.

Moreover, the Embassy points out that on 14 January, the Swedish Government decided to donate an additional half-million COVID-19 vaccine doses to COVAX. Sweden has thus far donated over 9 million doses and contributed more than SEK 2 billion to global vaccination efforts against COVID-19.

This saves lives and creates conditions for more equitable health, the Embassy states.

About Gregers Møller

Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

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