Palace confident of uninterrupted vaccination vs. COVID-19

Banking on the upcoming arrival of more vaccines, Malacañang on Wednesday expressed confidence that the government's vaccination program against COVID-19 will not be interrupted by supply issues.

In an interview on Dobol B TV on Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said aside from the vaccines expected from the COVAX Facility, the country is also expecting the arrival of a million doses from China's Sinovac Biotech soon.

"Tuloy-tuloy na po iyan (bakunahan) dahil may inaasahan tayong isang milyon galing sa Sinovac, ito na po yung bibilhin natin. Ang ginagamit natin ay 'yung donated lamang," he said.

Roque was referring to the 600,000 doses that arrived on February 28 that are being used for the ongoing vaccination of medical frontliners in various hospitals.

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

Galvez explained that there was a global shortage of other brands of COVID-19 vaccines, and Sinovac and Russia's Sputnik V were the only ones available.

Roque also said that vaccine doses from the COVAX Facility, which were supposed to arrive on March 1, would arrive within the month.

"Yung sa COVAX Facility ay meron pa tayong 500,000 plus, sigurado po 'yan na darating ng Marso," said Roque, who was at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute on Wednesday morning to witness the official rollout of the vaccination there.

"Kaya kampante ang gobyerno na tuloy-tuloy na ito (bakunahan) at sa lalong madaling panahon ay sana matapos po natin ang mga health workers, 3.4 milyon po yan at pagkatapos po sana ay meron na tayong makuha para sa seniors dahil yun na po ang susunod na target," he said. 

Aside from Sinovac, other COVID-19 vaccine brands granted emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Philippine Food and Drug Authorization were Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca.

An EUA is needed for a vaccine to be legally administered in the country.

The FDA on Tuesday said the vaccine from China's Sinopharm -- President Rodrigo Duterte's preferred vaccine for himself, according to Malacañang -- has already applied for an EUA.  —KBK, GMA News