{"id":271979,"date":"2020-10-15T22:19:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T02:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=271979"},"modified":"2020-10-15T22:19:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T02:19:37","slug":"palace-assures-covid-19-vaccines-affordability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/15\/palace-assures-covid-19-vaccines-affordability\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace assures Covid-19 vaccine\u2019s affordability"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Roque said Covid-19 vaccine is estimated to cost USD10 per dose. Two dosages are required per individual. (Pixabay file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Even if the government could not provide free coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines to all Filipinos, Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday said it is confident that the vaccines would be affordable to many Filipinos.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after President Rodrigo Duterte said it would be “ideal” for every Filipino to be inoculated with the vaccine.<\/p>\n

Roque did not directly confirm that the government would give the vaccine for free, but he was sure that the poor, police, military, and front-liners would be shouldered by government.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo 20 million initially\u00a0po ang bibilhin natin para sa mahihirap at para po sa ating kapulisan at sa ating mga militar and mga<\/em>\u00a0front-liners. (Initially, we will buy for the 20 million poor and for our police, military, and front-liners),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said Covid-19 vaccine is estimated to cost USD10 per dose. Two dosages are required per individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman po ganoon kamahal ang<\/em>\u00a0estimate\u00a0natin sa bakuna. Ang<\/em>\u00a0estimate\u00a0po ni<\/em>\u00a0Secretary Dominguez, USD10 per dose\u00a0at kinakailangan dalawang<\/em>\u00a0dosage so USD20 per person (The vaccine is not that expensive. The estimate of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III is USD10 per dose and we need two dosages so USD20 per person),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said an estimated PHP2 billion will be spent to inoculate the priority demographics. He said this amount is already included in the proposed PHP4.5-trillion national budget for 2021.<\/p>\n

He also noted that USD12 billion would be needed to inoculate 113 million Filipinos.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoughly, we would need around 12 billion dollars\u00a0kung ililibre natin lahat ang bakuna. Pero<\/em>\u00a0I\u2019m confident\u00a0naman po, hindi kinakailangang ilibre ang lahat kasi marami naman pong<\/em>\u00a0can afford USD20 for a vaccine (if we will shoulder the cost. But I\u2019m confident that it won\u2019t be necessary because there are many who can afford USD20 for a vaccine),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To buy the vaccines, Roque said the government will borrow from the Philippine International Trading Corp., Land Bank of the Philippines, and the Development Bank of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Political placebo?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile, shrugged off criticism that the promise of a vaccine has become Duterte\u2019s “political placebo.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is based on science. The fact\u00a0na ang dami na pong nasa<\/em>\u00a0third clinical trial, means\u00a0na nandiyan na po talaga ang remedyo<\/em>\u00a0(The fact that there are many vaccines on their third clinical trial means that there really is a remedy); there is light at the end of the tunnel. So\u00a0hinay-hinay lang po<\/em>\u00a0(Take your time), hang in there, malapit na pong matapos ito (this pandemic is almost over),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said the President\u2019s remarks about vaccine were intended to address Filipinos\u2019 \u201cpandemic fatigue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duterte, he said, is a “voracious news reader” and knew about the latest developments of some vaccines.<\/p>\n

In an interview over Unang Hirit, Roque also bared that three potential Covid-19 vaccines will undergo clinical trials in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayroon po tayong tatlo na magkakaroon tayo ng<\/em>\u00a0clinical trials\u00a0at kasama na po diyan iyong<\/em>\u00a0Russia\u00a0at saka iyong sa<\/em>\u00a0China.\u00a0At kung hindi po ako nagkakamali, mayroon pang isang<\/em>\u00a0Western company,\u00a0hindi ko lang po masigurado kung ito po iyong<\/em>\u00a0Oxford\u00a0o ito iyong sa Amerika, pero tatlo po iyan<\/em>\u00a0(We have three companies that will hold clinical trials including Russia and China. If I\u2019m not mistaken, there\u2019s one Western company, I\u2019m just not sure if it\u2019s Oxford or this one from America, but there are three of them),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Department of Science and Technology announced that the Russian\u2019s Sputnik V, the China\u2019s Sinovac, and Janssen from Johnson & Johnson will be tested in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

In a taped address on Wednesday night, Duterte said the government has set aside funds to buy a Covid-19 vaccine but will need more if it will inoculate the entire population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Even if the government could not provide free coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines to all Filipinos, Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":265431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271986,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271979\/revisions\/271986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}