"We should never forget how terrified we were upon first hearing about the virus."
It is welcome news from businessman Joey Concepcion that British pharmaceutical AstraZeneca approved the request of the Philippines' private sector for a second batch of COVID-19 vaccine procurement.
AstraZeneca last week withdrew its application to conduct clinical trials in the Philippines, citing the sufficiency of its data to prove the efficacy of its vaccine.
Go Negosyo founder Concepcion said on Sunday the recent AstraZeneca deal will be in addition to the 2.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines secured earlier through a ₱600-million donation from over 30 private companies.
It is expected to benefit more than 1.5 million Filipinos, with health workers and vulnerable sectors given priority. Half of the purchase will go to the government while the other half will go to the donor businesses.
At least we are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
The nice thing about this is the fact that the private sector stepped up, heeding the call of President Duterte to help out, as the government shells out more money to buy more vaccines.
This shows the spirit of Filipino bayanihan that we needed from the very start of the public health crisis, a pandemic that has killed 1.7 million people across the globe.
We need to unite to fight and defeat COVID-19, even as the UP-based OCTA says the downtrend in coronavirus incidence or flattening of the curb could be short-lived if we let our guard down.
The research group warns against a resurgence of infections in view of the influx of people in shopping malls and tiangge through the holidays.
In fact, there have been incidents of clear violations of community quarantine rules against mass gatherings at beach resorts and private swimming pools.
We should never forget how terrified we were by the onset of the pandemic brought to the country by a couple of tourists from Wuhan, China.
And, we were just as horrified by the miserable state of the health services system that is not much any better now, except for the palliatives of the Department of Health (DOH).
Whereas the DOH made available a few thousand COVID-19 testing kits to VIP politicians and government officials then, now RT-PCR COVID testing has become a multi-billion peso business.
After nine months of state of public health emergency, swab-testing remains inaccessible to millions of Filipinos who lost their jobs and struggle to regain their livelihood.
Without mass testing, months of lockdown hurt the economy more that it retarded the spread of COVID-19.
We were just lucky not to breach half a million total COVID-19 cases, including 8,700 deaths toll that is not few, no matter how you look at it.
Thanks be to God that our prayers, like that of a small girl who ardently pleaded for the discovery of COVID vaccine in March, have been answered finally.