MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is expected to receive 600,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech on February 23, Malacañang said Thursday.
The vaccine doses were donated by Beijing to Manila, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a briefing. Of the total doses, 100,000 will be allocated to the Philippine military.
Related Stories
The arrival of the shipment, however, does not mean that the Sinovac’s CoronaVac jab can be immediately used for inoculation as it has yet to be granted emergency use authorization by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration.
FDA Director General Eric Domingo said Tuesday the agency is still waiting for the response of the Chinese drugmaker to its queries about the product.
“It (Sinovac) will be stored until such time that it is approved. If it is not issued EUA, it will be sent back,” Roque said.
Aside from the donation, the country is set to receive 25 million vaccine doses from the Chinese pharmaceutical firm this year, Roque ealier said.
Sinovac’s vaccine, which is being tested in Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia, has varied efficacy rates. The firm said trials in Brazil had shown around 50% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 infection.
Turkey said the vaccine had shown effectiveness of 91.25% in late-stage evaluation, while the Indonesian trial reported 65%.
President Rodrigo Duterte has always assured the military and police they will be among the first to be vaccinated against COVID-19, along with their families.
Under the government's priority list, uniformed personnel are under "A4" (frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel and those in working sectors identified by the IATF as essential during enhanced community quarantine), frontline medical workers are under "A1."
No definite date for Pfizer arrival
Meanwhile, the exact date of arrival of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shots in the country is still not definite. Officials earlier said that some 117,000 vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech are expected to reach the country within the month.
Roque previously said the government is ready to begin its inoculation drive by February 15 but Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the date was only “indicative.”
“There were few delays in the processing of documents with the COVAX facility and the World Health Organization but we are confident that the shipment will arrive in the next weeks, within the month of February,” Vince Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, said in Filipino.
If the limited jabs arrive, they will be given to medical frontliners.
The government is aiming to secure a total of 146 to 148 million vaccine doses to inoculate at least 50 million people this year alone but it has yet to execute definitive supply agreements with pharmaceutical companies.