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2M COVID-19 vaccine doses due in April or May, says Palace


The Philippines is expecting the delivery of two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in April or May, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Thursday.

In a statement after a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Roque said 1.5 million doses would be delivered by Sinovac while 500,000 would be from Gamaleya "in April or May."

President Rodrigo Duterte wasn't in the meeting convened a day after the Chief Executive postponed for the second time his weekly COVID-19 briefing with Cabinet officials 

The Philippines has so far received 2,525,600 COVID-19 vaccine doses -- two million from Sinovac and 525,600 from AstraZeneca.

The Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration earlier ordered the suspension of vaccination using AstraZeneca doses for those younger than 60 years old.

This developed after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) found that AstraZeneca doses were linked to blood clots among some vaccinees in Europe.

Aside from the 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca donated to the Philippines by global initiative COVAX facility, the local government units and the private sector have procured 17 million doses of AstraZeneca.

In the same statement, Roque assured that the government had been addressing the issue of hazard pay of healthcare workers.

As of April 8, Roque said that 922,898 COVID-19 vaccine doses have already been administered.

The Philippines has 167,279 active COVID-19 cases so far. --NB/GMA News

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