MANILA, Philippines — The latest shipment of COVID-19 jabs procured from Sinovac Biotech can now be delivered to vaccination sites across the country after the manufacturer submitted a necessary document, the Department of Health said Wednesday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the agency has already received a certificate of analysis, which is one of the documents required by the country’s drug regulator, from the Chinese vaccine maker.
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“We can now distribute the Sinovac vaccine doses that we have,” Vergeire told ABS-CBN’s “Teleradyo.”
The distribution of one million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac shot that arrived last week was stalled due to the missing certificate.
The health official said a certificate of analysis ensures the purchased vaccines are of good quality and have passed standards.
Additional 1.5 million doses of CoronaVac are expected to arrive in the Philippines Thursday.
Vergeire also said the special syringe used to extract Pfizer-BioNTech doses from vials have also arrived and are already being distributed to vaccination centers.
The country has received more than 12.7 million COVID-19 jabs since February.
Only 1.7% of the country’s roughly 110 million population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 4.6% have received the first of two doses of the vaccine.