MANILA, Philippines — Doctors from the Philippine General Hospital are calling for further assessment of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. before it is given to healthcare workers.

The PGH Physicians’ Association said Saturday in a statement that Sinovac’s CoronaVac should undergo further study by the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) “to facilitate individual informed decision-making.”

The HTAC is an independent advisory body created under Republic Act No. 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act which is mandated to study the clinical and economic value of new healthcare interventions and technologies coming into the country that are funded by the government.

PGH doctors are not the only ones calling for the HTAC to assess CoronaVac, with the Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 also saying that the government should await the recommendation of the body before using the vaccine.

But Dr. Nina Castillo-Carandang, a member of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG), said that an assessment by the HTAC is not yet required as the 600,000 CoronaVac doses that are expected to arrive in the country on Sunday are donations.

‘Sweeping disapproval’

The NITAG, a group of experts responsible for providing independent, evidence-informed advice to policymakers on issues related to immunization and vaccines, and the Food and Drug Administration issued contrasting recommendations on the use of CoronaVac for healthcare workers.

NITAG said it is safe and “beneficial” to frontline medical workers, while the FDA did not recommend its use by healthcare workers constantly exposed to COVID-19 patients, citing the 50.4% efficacy rate in trials among healthcare workers in Brazil.

The drug regulator, however, later clarified that frontline medical workers are not prohibited to receive the vaccine if they want to.

PGH doctors said that 94% of healthcare workers and employees at the hospital were willing to be immunized, “under the impression that the vaccine to be administered has undergone the proper evaluation process by the FDA, HTAC and NITAG.”

But they were surprised when they learned that the vaccine that would be given to them would be Sinovac’s CoronaVac, which they said was met with a “sweeping disapproval” rate of 95%.

“We recognize the efforts of the PGH Administration in hastening the vaccination process for its constituents. However, the vaccination plan should have been handled with more prudence and transparency,” PGH doctors said.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier teased that coronavirus shots developed by US drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech would be the first to arrive in the Philippines.

However, the shipment of these jabs, which the country would get through the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility, were delayed due to the lack of an indemnification agreement.