Philippines receives 1M more doses of Sinovac vaccines

An additional one million doses of Coronavac, the COVID-19 vaccine made by Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech, arrived in the Philippines on Sunday morning.

The shipment arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport via Cebu Pacific flight 5J671 at 7:36 a.m., according to a report by Mao dela Cruz on Dobol B TV.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and other Chinese Embassy officials welcomed the delivery in Manila.

In an interview with reporters at NAIA, Galvez said the majority of the China-made vaccines will be distributed to provinces that are high-risk for the coronavirus disease.

"May sinasabi si President (Rodrigo) Duterte and we will comply na sa mga areas kagaya ng Zamboanga at iba pang lugar sa Region 6 na tumataas ang kaso. Ang gusto niya mabigyan din ang lahat ng probinsya," Galvez said when asked about the deployment of Sinovac vaccines.

(The President wanted to distribute the vaccines to other provinces such as Zamboanga and other areas in Region 6 where there is an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, so we will comply. He also wants all provinces to be given the vaccines.)

"So ginawa po natin 1 million na ito. Majority po sa Mindanao ide-deploy dahil 'yung Pfizer at Moderna na darating, majority noon NCR na," he added.

(So what we did was we made this order one million doses. Majority of these will be deployed to Mindanao because majority of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines arriving soon will be distributed in Metro Manila.)

The Sinovac vaccines that arrived on Sunday were first brought to PharmaServ Express cold storage facility in Marikina City. The 10-wheeler truck bearing the vaccines arrived at the facility at 8:56 a.m., according to a report by Luisito Santos on Dobol B TV.

A convoy of the Philippine National Police and its Highway Patrol Group helped secure and ensure the speedy transport of vaccines.

At one point, the transport of vaccines caused slow-moving traffic along Mayor Gil Fernando Avenue in Marikina. But after the vaccines arrived, traffic returned to normal. 

UPDATE: Isang milyong doses ng COVID-19 vaccine ng Sinovac, dumating na sa cold storage facility ng Pharmaserv Express Inc. sa Marikina City. | via @luisitosantos03 pic.twitter.com/I9ClJsz5Jq

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) June 6, 2021

Previously, Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago “Chito” Sta. Romana said the country will get one to two million doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to fulfill the government's order of 25 million doses by the end of the year.

On Facebook, Romana said the vaccines were procured by the Department of Health.

He added that more doses are expected to arrive in the following weeks.

—KG, GMA News