Sinovac exec says 1M COVID-19 vaccine doses may arrive in March

One million doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive in the Philippines in March.

Sinovac Biotech general manager Helen Yang said Monday they are still discussing the shipment with the Philippine government.

“We are discussing with the Philippine government to arrange another one million doses in March. We’re working on that,” Yang said in an interview on ANC.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government will buy a million doses of the Sinovac vaccine worth P700 million within the month.

“Kaya po tayo, mayroon tayong procurement this coming March, mayroon po tayong one million from Sinovac,” Galvez explained during the briefing held on the first day of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

“May PO tayo na one million. Ang ginagawa kasi natin, ang agreement natin sa Sinovac, iyong per PO, ibig sabihin iyong Purchase Order, iyong Purchase Order na one million, mayroon na po tayong pondo doon. Ang pondo po natin doon is P700 million,” he added.

On Sunday, China’s donation of 600,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from Sinovac arrived at the Villamor Airbase on a Chinese Y-20 Transporter aircraft.

The first batch of vaccines will be rolled out to several hospitals in the National Capital Region, marking a turning point in the country’s battle against COVID-19.

Earlier in the day, University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi became the Philippines' first official recipient of a CoronaVac against COVID-19.

Several government officials, including vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., Food and Drug Administration director general Eric Domingo, and testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon also received the Sinovac shot.

Meanwhile, Yang recommended that the second dose of the Sinovac shot should be taken after 14 to 28 days.

“Some countries do it 28 days but if under emergency, they can also follow 14 days apart,” she said.

“For this, I would recommend to follow the (Food and Drug Administration) recommendation,” she added.

Further, she said in most cases, the side effect is muscle pain.

So far, only the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac have been approved for emergency use by the FDA.

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