MANILA, Philippines — The United States has already donated a total of P97.2 billion ($2 billion) to the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative, which the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines said is so far the largest contribution made to the global vaccine sharing scheme.
The U.S. Embassy in the Philippines bared this figure as it welcomed the successful arrival of the 487,200 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from British-Swede firm AstraZeneca to the Philippines on Thursday through COVAX.
“The United States already has donated Php97.2 billion ($2 billion) to COVAX, by far the largest contribution, to ensure the Philippines and other countries receive COVID-19 vaccines,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement on Friday.
In February, the U.S. government announced its plans to contribute a total of $194.4 billion ($4 billion) to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment.
COVAX aims for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, especially in low and middle-income countries.
“The United States is proud to be the largest contributor to COVAX, and we welcome the successful arrival of the first tranche of AstraZeneca vaccines in the Philippines. As we fight the pandemic together, the United States will continue to support the Philippines’ vaccination and COVID-19 mitigation efforts,” said U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires John Law.
According to the U.S. Embassy, U.S. contributions to COVAX through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will support the purchase and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines for the world’s “most vulnerable and at-risk” populations in 92 low and middle-income countries.
The total U.S. government assistance to the Philippines to help address the COVID-19 situation here has so far amounted to more than P1.1 billion ($23.4 million), the U.S. Embassy added.
The Department of Health (DOH) earlier said that the initial batch of AstraZeneca vaccines delivered to the Philippines was developed in South Korea and was donated by European countries.