1M more doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine arrive in the Philippines

A million more doses of COVID-19 vaccine procured by the Philippine government from Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech arrived in the country on Thursday morning.

In his report on Unang Balita, GMA News' Ian Cruz said the shipment arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 via a Cebu Pacific flight from Beijing at 7:16 a.m.

It was the tenth batch of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in the country, including the two batches that were donated by China.

Isang milyong doses ng CoronaVac ng Sinovac, dumating na sa bansa lulan ng Cebu Pacific flight mula Beijing. Ito na ang ika-walong shipment ng biniling bakuna ng bansa mula China. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/XTuvlc3wOT

— Ian Cruz (@_iancruz) June 9, 2021

The latest arrival boosted the Philippines' vaccine supply to 10.3 million doses. 

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon welcomed the arrival of the vaccines at the airport. It was the first of two vaccine shipments set to arrive within the day.

A report from 24Oras News Alert said the vaccines were brought to a storage facility in Marikina City.

The same report quoted Galvez as saying that the vaccines will be distributed to regions with high COVID-19 cases, including NCR Plus. 

On Thursday night, more than 2 million vaccine doses from Pfizer under COVAX Facility are expected to arrive in the country. 

Based on Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluation of Sinovac's vaccine, it has the following efficacy rates:

• 65% to 91% among healthy individuals aged 18 to 59,
• 50.4% for health workers, and
• 51% to 52% on senior citizens or those aged 60 and above
• Sinovac's vaccine is given in two doses

The Philippines officially rolled out its vaccination program on March 1 but it has been hampered by supply problems.  —with Joviland Rita/KBK/RSJ, GMA News