3 Million US Vaccine Donation Propels Resumption of VFA

President Rodrigo Duterte recently announced his decision to resume the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) after the country received 3 million Moderna vaccine doses as part of a donation from the US. The VFA was terminated by the President early last year.

“Give and take lang tayo,” explained President Duterte as he described the relationship between the two countries. “I would like to thank President of the US, Biden, the US government, and the people of America for not forgetting us,” he added.

Just last month, the Philippines was the recipient of 3 million Janssen vaccine jabs which was also a donation from the US. So far, the US has provided 13.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the country.

The government has set a goal of fully vaccinating around 15 million Filipinos are by the end of August. This also requires sustaining an average daily inoculation of 600,000 to 700,000 Filipinos.

Under the current vaccination framework, the country is still focused on vaccinating health workers, outbound migrant Filipino workers, family members of health workers, seniors, people with comorbidities, essential workers, and indigents.

According to Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabojate, vaccination of the general public is projected to begin in September or October. She also elaborated that vaccination guidelines for people under 18 years old are yet to be drafted.

Last week, the government announced that Metro Manila will be placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the strictest lockdown classification, from August 6 to 20 in order to curb the spike in COVID cases due to the Delta variant.

Source: BusinessWorld