Sen. Panfilo Lacson expressed thanks over the weekend to the donors of COVID-19 vaccines that arrived in the Philippines recently, as they give Filipinos hope of recovering from the pandemic-induced economic crisis.
Lacson said the vaccines from China-based Sinovac, as well as AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVID-19 Vaccines Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC), will help achieve herd immunity that in turn will help resume economic activities.
“Always grateful to China and COVAX AMC for making us see a sliver of hope to achieve herd immunity,” he said on his Twitter account Friday evening.
He added that until the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines arrived, a P2.2-billion daily loss in household consumption and a 9.5-percent economic contraction threatened to drive the country “a step closer to insanity.”
Figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the Philippine economy contracted 9.5 percent in 2020, the largest contraction ever recorded.
The National Economic and Development Authority added quarantine restrictions reduced household spending by P801 billion in 2020 or some P2.2 billion a day.
Last Feb. 28, an initial batch of Sinovac vaccines donated by China arrived in the Philippines. Last March 4, some 480,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived via the COVAX facility.
Lacson said that while the donated doses are not even one percent of the targeted 70-million population to attain herd immunity, they “give us hope that the vaccines are already here.”
“We will always be grateful to them for our first taste of the vaccines. It gives us hope,” he added.
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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