As of Tuesday, January 12, 23 local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines have announced signing a deal for an advance purchase of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

According to the data released by the Senate committee on finance chair Sonny Angara in December last year, AstraZeneca’s vaccine is one of the cheaper COVID-19 vaccines produced. The cost is only worth P610 for two doses per person.

In terms of efficacy rate, researchers earlier noted during the first full peer-reviewed results of phase 3 trials of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University — that it is safe and up to 90% effective in preventing infection, supporting regulatory submissions for emergency use.

According to January 9 study released by weekly general medical journal “The Lancet”, AstraZeneca’s overall vaccine efficacy rate was 70 percent.

This study shows that the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm’s coronavirus vaccine has more efficacy rate than China’s Sinovac Biotech — that Philippines secured 25m doses — which only showed a general efficacy of less than 60%. This is according to the study during its late-stage trial in Brazil.

Among the LGUs that announced signing a deal with the UK-based AstraZeneca vaccine as of January 12 are as follows:

Antipolo City: AstraZeneca doses worth P300 million

Bacolod City: AstraZeneca doses worth P300 million

Baguio City: AstraZeneca doses for 190,000 people

Caloocan City: 600,000 doses from AstraZeneca

Dagupan City: 40,000 doses from AstraZeneca

Davao City: AstraZeneca doses for 1.2 million residents

Ilocos Norte: 300,000 doses from AstraZeneca

Iloilo City: 600,000 doses from AstraZeneca

Las Piñas City: 300,000 doses from AstraZeneca worth P200 million

Mandaluyong City: AstraZeneca doses worth P200 million

Makati City: 1 million doses from AstraZeneca

Manila City: 800,000 doses from AstraZeneca

Muntinlupa City: 100,000 doses from AstraZeneca

Navotas City: 100,000 doses from AstraZeneca

Ormoc City: 270,000 dozes from AstraZeneca (scheduled rollout: July)

Oroquieta City: 120,000 doses from AstraZeneca worth P30 million

Pasig City: 400,000 doses from AstraZeneca worth P100 million

Quezon City: 1.1 million doses from AstraZeneca

San Juan City: P50 million allocated for AstraZeneca doses

Taguig City: No details yet on the number of doses from AstraZeneca

Valenzuela City: 640,000 doses from AstraZeneca (scheduled arrival: second half of 2021)

Vigan: 100,000 to 120,000 doses from AstraZeneca

Zamboanga City: 410,000 doses from AstraZeneca

On January 6, the local Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) announced that AstraZeneca is preparing its application for an emergency use authorization (EUA) of its COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines, saying that the UK-based vaccine manufacturer is also preparing for their submission because they already got their EUA from the United Kingdom and India.