Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said Thursday that the suspension of the rollout of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in other countries will not affect their city’s procurement of that brand.
Moreno said in an interview that the tripartite deal of the local government with the British-Swedish manufacturer will stay — until a notice is issued by the Food and Drug Administration.
“I don’t think so,” Moreno said when asked if recent global developments will have an effect on the LGU’s planned purchase of 800,000 vaccine doses.
“I mean generally, yes, there are incidents— including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac — all vaccines have some story to tell,” he explained. “But generally, tuloy tuloy naman sa buong mundo. So wala pa namang abiso sa amin ang FDA.”
Last week, Philippine health authorities reached a decision to temporarily stop the administration of AstraZeneca vaccines to people under the age of 60.
This was after European drug regulators discovered a link between the COVID-19 shot and a few cases of unusual blood clots with low platelet count — a report that prompted several countries including Denmark, Iceland, and Norway to suspend their rollout.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health assured there have been no reports of unusual blood clotting among Filipinos who received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
