THE Philippines on Monday, March 29, 2021, received the first tranche of one million CoronaVac doses out of the total 25 million doses procured by the national government from vaccine manufacturer Sinovac Biotech Ltd. of China.
“The arrival of these vaccines is great news as we are beginning to see the fruits of our negotiation efforts after months of hard work to provide vaccines for our people. This is but the first of the many other doses we have negotiated in order to achieve our goal of herd immunity,” vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said.
Galvez said he was expecting the delivery of 1.5 to 4.0 million additional Sinovac doses by April and May 2021 together with the additional 979,200 AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the Covax facility.
“These will allow the country to further expand coverage of our vaccination program,” Galvez added.
With the arrival of additional vaccines, the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination program is expected to ramp up as the government recently approved the simultaneous conduct of vaccination to priority groups A1 to A3.
“The arrival of these vaccines is very timely. As we finish vaccinating healthcare frontliners, we will be able to use this new batch of purchased CoronaVac vaccines to extend vaccination to vulnerable Filipinos—or those with pre-existing conditions and comorbidities—who are at most risk of severe Covid-19 and highest chance of dying,” said Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
Even with the arrival of additional vaccines, Duque reiterated the need to adhere to the minimum public health standards by wearing face masks and face shields, and observing physical distancing.
President Rodrigo Duterte, Galvez and Duque welcomed this latest vaccine shipment from Sinovac, together with Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City. (SunStar Philippines from PR)