1M more Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses arrive in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — One million more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech were delivered to the Philippines on Friday.

The plane carrying the latest batch of government-procured Sinovac jabs arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International past 7 a.m.

The Chinese drugmaker has so far shipped 17 million vaccine doses to the country since February. Broken down, 15.1 million doses were procured by the national government, one million doses were donated by Beijing, and 900,000 were purchased by private firms.

The Philippines signed an agreement for 25 million doses of CoronaVac, the COVID-19 vaccine of Sinovac. Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the national government is negotiating with pharmaceutical firm for an additional 10 million doses.

Since inoculation efforts began in March, more than 5 million individuals have completed vaccination, while 10.58 million have received at least one dose.

Officials have been urging Filipinos to get vaccinated to give them protection against COVID-19, especially amid the threat of the fast-spreading Delta variant.

Health authorities have so far reported 1.53 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, including 26,891 deaths. Of the total, 3.3% were active cases.