1M more Sinovac jabs arriving June 6 — envoy to China

MANILA, Philippines — A million more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech will arrive in the Philippines on Sunday. 

Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana announced this Friday in a Facebook post which also showed photos of Philippine Embassy in China staff inspecting the vaccines in a refrigerated warehouse in Daxing, Beijing.

"These vaccines were purchased by the Department of Health, more shipments are planned in the following weeks," the envoy said. 

Sunday's shipment will raise the total number of Sinovac jabs received from the Chinese manufacturer to 6.5 million, a million of which were donated by Beijing. 

Other shipments expected this month include 2.2 million Pfizer vaccines from the COVAX facility and an initial tranche of the US' excess vaccines, 7 million of which will go to countries in Asia and the Pacific, including the Philippines. 

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said the country expects to receive some 10 million vaccines in June. 

According to Galvez, over 5 million people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of May 30. Of these,1,189,353 have been fully vaccinated, representing only 1.08% of the total 110 million population. 

— Bella Perez-Rubio