By Joseph B.A. Marzan
Iloilo province is on track to start its vaccination drive against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with its vaccination plan “nearly done”, Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. revealed on Thursday.
The vaccination plan was first conceptualized in mid-January, with Defensor convening the province’s vaccination team.
To recall, Defensor signed a multilateral procurement deal with British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca for its AZD1222 vaccine on January 10, 2021, together with officials from the national government.
The AZD1222 has an efficacy rate of 90 percent in combatting COVID-19, with AstraZeneca also claiming in December that it may also be effective against the new and “more infectious” B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 strain.
The Food and Drugs Administration has already issued emergency use authorization to AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
The governor shared the working draft of the COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment and Immunization Plan 2021-2022 (CoVac Plan 21-22), which was developed together with other provincial government officials.
The CoVac Plan includes the process dialogues with vaccine makers, determination of vaccines to be procured, and vaccines to be expected from the national government, among others.
He said that this would be the provincial government’s guidelines on the COVID-19 vaccine moving forward, with how they would be buying and distributing vaccines to the arms of the Ilonggos.
He had previously expressed openness to buying other COVID-19 vaccines from other pharmaceutical companies, such as the NVX-CoV2373 by American Novavax and the BNT162b2 developed jointly by American Pfizer and German BioNTech.
Defensor joined other local leaders in Region 6 last Jan. 17 in meeting virtually with Novavax to discuss their vaccine.
As of this writing, only the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines have been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
He shared that the provincial government has been “actively talking” with many pharmaceutical companies on COVID-19 vaccines.
“We have information that our national government is procuring Pfizer. We have been in dialogue with pharmaceutical companies because it is part of our decision-making. I cannot say if we do have Sinovac coming, but whatever would be our vaccine, what is important is that it has been approved by our [FDA],” Defensor said in a press conference.
He stopped short of saying that the provincial government will be buying the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, saying that only talks have been occurring, and that it would still have to be coursed with the national government.
“We asked a briefing from Pfizer, but we have only been getting the basics, and determining the direction. Right now, like other pharmaceutical companies, they can only enter into a bilateral agreement with the national government. Right now, I can tell you that we cannot enter into a multilateral agreement with Pfizer,” he added.
He also said that he would rather wait for the plan to be finalized before conducting simulation tests for mass vaccination, in light of the exercises commenced by the Iloilo City Government this week.
The CoVac Plan 21-22 is expected to be released to the public today, Jan. 29, 2021, or within the weekend.
