ASIDE from the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, other member-countries of the European Union (EU), namely Germany, Sweden, France and Austria, have likewise delivered vaccine doses last week.
The recent shipment has brought the bloc’s total jab donations to 14,525,700, which reflects “a strong gesture of solidarity to fight the…pandemic in the Philippines,” its delegation to the country revealed.
It said some 9.9 million additional doses are expected to be donated by the end of the year through the COVAX Facility—the global initiative providing fair and equitable access of the Covid-19 vaccines for every country.
Collectively, the region’s member-states are, thus far, the biggest donor of the said jabs in the world, as they have provided more than 350 million doses to low- and middle-income countries. The large majority, around 300 million, have been shared via COVAX.
Team Europe is also a major contributor to the facility, having provided €3 billion (about P170 billion) to help secure access to fully donor-funded doses for 92 lower-income economies. The EU Delegation considers such as “a great collective achievement.”
“Developing, sharing and distributing vaccines against Covid-19 is among the most pressing challenges we face today,’ Ambassador to the Philippines Luc Véron said. “By delivering this large amount of vaccines at a critical period, the EU and its member-states stand in full solidarity with the Philippines. It is in our mutual interest to confront this global pandemic, and end it as soon as possible.”
The batch of Germany’s vaccine donations to the country arrived on December 17. They were received by the German Embassy-Manila First Secretary and Consul Anja Hartung, together with representatives from the Health Department and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
With the arrival of another 1,961,300 doses of Moderna vaccines from the ACT-A/COVAX program, the overall number of vaccines donated by the European country to the Philippines now amounts to 7.3 million doses. This set of donations follows the 3.7 million doses of the same kind of jabs that arrived two Wednesdays ago; and already the fourth round of German vaccine donations after shipments of AstraZeneca vaccines were sent in October and November.
Germany is a top global donor of Covid-19 vaccines, supplying a total of more than 175 million doses, with the Philippines among their primary destinations. As a whole, EU member-states are the largest provider of vaccines to the country.