FOLLOWING the success of the recent ceremonial signing of the 2.6M doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the private and public sector – “A Dose of Hope” – led by Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion, National Task Force and Philippine Vaccine Czar Charlie Galvez, AstraZeneca Philippines Country President Lotis Ramin, and the more than 30 companies who joined via Zoom, Concepcion has announced that the second part is now approved and can now be processed.
As we can remember, Concepcion has stated that the initial procurement was meant to be more than 2.6M, but had to follow a supply timeline – following other countries and institutions securing their vaccines too. “The donations from private sector had potential to go over 3 million. This development is really fantastic. I thank the Astra group for their efforts for really helping the Philippines,” Concepcion noted.
Now that the situation has been better “we are happy to announce that with enough support, and of course, demand coming from the private sector, the second part is now already in the works. The signing we did few weeks ago made into several headlines and we received several inquiries from the private sector asking for more allocation, hence, a request to AstraZeneca to hopefully allow us to have a second batch,” Concepcion passionately announced.
With the constant support from the partner private sectors and the government, and the unending vigor of Concepcion to find ways into how we can secure vaccines, we are now expecting more vaccines to come and more lives to be saved in the process. The private-public partnership has spelled wonders for our fight against COVID-19, “So far this private-public partnership is working so well and has become a template for the private sector in this war against COVID-19,” Concepcion highlighted.
Always utilizing the tools that are available given the situation, Concepcion at the start of the pandemic used testing to provide visibility. Now, on our way to a vaccine, Concepcion again is in the active role. “With all these announcements, our Filipino people can be assured that we will not be left behind…We will soon see this pandemic disappear,” Concepcion assured the public.
With all this progress, we are nearing a time where we will not choose between lives and livelihood anymore – all of these possible through the synergy that the public and the private sector has created.
