The World Bank yesterday approved $300 million of additional financing for the Philippines’ efforts to scale up national vaccination against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The World Bank said in a statement the Philippines COVID-19 Emergency Response Project-Additional Financing 2 (PCERP-AF2) will cover procurement and delivery of doses to individuals aged 12-17; additional doses, as part of primary vaccination series, for at-risk population sub-groups, including immunocompromised individuals and senior citizens who were not fully protected with the initial two dose or single dose regimens; and booster doses for health workers and the wider population.
The loan is expected to provide approximately 27 million vaccine doses.
“Fair, broad and fast access to effective and safe COVID-19 vaccines is vital to save lives and strengthen economic recovery,” Ndiamé Diop, World Bank country director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, said.
“This funding operation is critical for the country to safely reopen the economy and resume economic and social development activities, including face-to-face learning, that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Diop added.
Subject to regulatory approvals and data on safety, this new loan will also finance primary doses for children under 12 in support of the country’s efforts to safely reopen schools.
Diop added this new lending operation will also help the country’s efforts to address emerging variants like Omicron.
Global vaccine supply market remains supplier-driven with many uncertainties for low- and middle-income countries. Hence, negotiating supply agreements with suppliers ahead of the country’s planned vaccination scale up in 2022 is a step in the right direction, Diop said.
The funding builds on the World Bank’s earlier funding of $100 million approved in April 2020 to help the country meet urgent health care needs to address the pandemic and bolster its public health preparedness, and $500 million approved in March 2021 to finance the initial rollout of the vaccination program. – Angela Celis
