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Galvez defends continued purchase of Sinovac vaccine
By VIRGIL LOPEZ,GMA NewsVaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Wednesday defended the government’s decision to continue buying COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac despite its performance against coronavirus variants.
Galvez said all vaccines that have been used in the country, including Sinovac, got prior approval for emergency use by the World Health Organization.
Likwise, he said that the Sinovac vaccine was effective at preventing severe COVID-19 infection and hospitalization.
“Kung wala po ang Sinovac na binili po natin, ang nabakunahan lang po natin siguro wala pa po sigurong five million. Siguro yung Metro Manila with the rise of cases, punung-puno yung mga ospital,” Galvez said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay online forum.
(We would have vaccinated only less than five million people if we did not have Sinovac. Hospitals in Metro Manila would have been overwhelmed due to the rises in COVID-19 cases.)
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine
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Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, meanwhile, were found to be 70% effective against the Delta variant, according to a Bloomberg report last week.
Nearly 52 million vaccine doses have arrived in the country since February 28 and 27.6 million of them were procured from Sinovac, according to the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
Galvez could not say how much the government has spent so far on Sinovac vaccine doses.
“Hindi po natin masabi po yung exact price. Ang nagko-compute po nito yung Department of Finance (I can't say the exact price. It’s the Department of Finance which makes the computation),” he said.
The Philippines is expected to receive 12 million more Sinovac doses this month and 10 million doses in October, Galvez said. —LBG, GMA News