The Philippine capital of Manila has signed a deal with British-Swedish company AstraZeneca for 800,000 doses of its vaccine against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

In a statement on Monday, January 11, the Manila City Public Information Office announced that the city has entered into a tripartite agreement with the multinational company and the National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF).

The 800,000 doses would be enough to vaccinate 400,000 people.

Who gets them first?

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno has repeatedly said in his speeches that medical frontliners, essential workers, and the elderly would first get the vaccines.

The city has also opened a pre-registration online portal to track people who would like to be vaccinated, then prioritize who would get the vaccine first.

As of Sunday, January 10, Manila has detected a total of 25,233 virus cases, including 24,225 recoveries and 759 deaths. The local government counted 249 active cases.

How Manila sealed the deal

The capital’s local government has been in talks with multinationals since July 2020, Moreno said.

Moreno earlier mentioned that his government was in talks with at least two pharmaceutical companies for the signing of advance commitment contracts.

Having an advance commitment contract does two things: it reserves a number of vaccines for Manila, as well as sets the price and payment scheme for when the vaccines become available. There was no payment yet at this point, only a reservation. – Rappler.com