At least 1M doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in Philippines every month —envoy

One to two million doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to the Philippines every month to fulfil the 25 million doses procured by the government at the end of the year.

This was disclosed by Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago “Chito” Sta. Romana on Saturday during the Laging Handa public briefing.

He said Philippine diplomats in China have already inspected the first one million doses of Sinovac vaccines procured by the Philippine government which are set to arrive in the country on Monday.

“After that, every month ang plano ng gobyerno is roughly one to two million doses every month from Sinovac for a total of 25 million by the end of the year,” he said.

(After that, the government plans to receive one to two million doses every month from Sinovac for a total of 25 million by the end of the year.)

In January, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III announced that the Philippines has secured around 25 million doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine. 

Sinopharm

Meanwhile, Sta. Romana said the Philippine Embassy in Beijing is trying to facilitate discussions between the China-owned vaccine manufacturer Sinopharm and the Philippine Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases.

He said they are still in discussion with Sinopharm on the application of its vaccine’s emergency use authorization (EUA) in the Philippines as the Chinese pharmaceutical firm needs to identify its official local distributor in the country.

Sta. Romana also explained that there is a big demand in China and in other countries for the vaccines from Sinopharm. 

The Philippine Food and Drug Administration earlier said it has received two letters from two different companies expressing intent to apply for the EUA of Sinopharm vaccines.

However, neither of the companies has given the requirements and proceeded with the process of EUA application.

Malacañang earlier said President Rodrigo Duterte prefers the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.

Sinopharm was earlier tagged in a controversy after Duterte himself revealed late last year that some military men, including his detailed security, had gotten vaccinated with Sinopharm despite its absence of regulatory approval. 

Last month, former special envoy to China Ramon Tulfo also claimed that several government officials received the Sinopharm vaccine as he expressed interest in becoming a local distributor. 

So far, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and Sputnik V have been approved for emergency use in the country.

The Philippines so far received at least 1 million doses of Sinovac donated by China and 525,000 vials of AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the COVAX facility, a global pooled vaccine procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines which ensures fair and equitable access to jabs. —KG, GMA News