COVID-19 vaccines now at storage facility in Marikina

The 600,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from Sinovac arrived on Sunday night at the MetroPac Movers Inc. facility in Barangay Concepcion Uno in Marikina City where they will be stored before deployment to hospitals.

Earlier in the day, Marikina Mayor Marcy Teodoro inspected the cold chain facility ahead of the arrival of the vaccines.

China’s donation of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived at the Villamor Airbase on a Chinese Y-20 Transport aircraft a little past 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the arrival of the vaccines marked the start of the country’s inoculation program.

The country’s first shots will be administered in several COVID-19 referral hospitals across the National Capital Region on Monday.

Some hospitals were preparing to receive and manage the first batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines for prioritized recipients in the country. /

The priority groups include frontline health workers, indigent senior citizens, the rest of the indigent population, and uniformed personnel.

Meanwhile, Galvez and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the scheduled arrival of 525,600 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX facility on March 1 would be delayed for a week.

So far, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization to vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac.

The country aims to inoculate 50 to 70 million individuals within the year. — DVM, GMA News