The US has donated $2 billion (P97.2 billion) so far to the global Covax facility, a platform that seeks to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, the US Embassy in the Philippines said.
The U.S. welcomes the arrival of 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX facility in the Philippines on Mar. 4. The U.S., through USAID, has donated Php97.2 billion ($2B) to COVAX as part of a total $4 billion U.S. donation. Source: https://t.co/865xSBV2Ri pic.twitter.com/8BH4RVjUoY
— U.S. Embassy in the Philippines (@USEmbassyPH) March 5, 2021
The embassy presented the figure after the first batch of Covax-sourced vaccines arrived in the Philippines on Thursday night.
“The United States welcomes the successful arrival of 487,200 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to the Philippines on Thursday, March 4,” the embassy said.
In February, the US government announced a total planned contribution of $4 billion (P194.4 billion) to the Covax Advance Market Commitment.
“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,” US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires John Law said.
The Philippines is expecting 44 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Covax.
The US has so far provided the Philippines Covid-19 assistance worth $23.4 million (P1.1 billion), the embassy said. John Ezekiel J. Hirro