The Philippines seeks to obtain ‘leftover’ COVID-19 vaccines from Denmark

(Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP / FILE PHOTO)

The Philippines is seeking to obtain the Covid-19 vaccines leftovers particularly from Denmark that has suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Manila Bulletin reports.

According to a tweet on 15 April, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. administered his department to look into reports that Denmark is willing to share the more than 200,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines the country obtained earlier following reports of “rare blood clots combined with low platelet counts that have occurred in Europe and Britain.”

“There you go. DFAPHL contact me about this tomorrow morning (Friday),” the foreign secretary stated.

Earlier this week a letter was also sent to the President of the USA, Joe Biden by a group of Filipino-American lobbyists and US-based organizations. The letter requested for the “immediate release” of five million doses of Moderna vaccines by May instead of the original target delivery of June, citing the “dire” situation of COVID-19 infections in the Philippines.

The Philippines has set aside a total of $1.7 billion in funds for obtaining, logistics, and rollouts of the vaccines with $1.2 billion of these coming from loans extended by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

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