Total vaccine doses already in the PHL now at more than 2.5 million
(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, March 29, welcomed the arrival of another batch of 1 million Sinovac doses under the brand name Coronavac that brought the total number of the Chinese-made jabs delivered to the country at 2 million.
The vaccines arrived a month after the delivery of the first shipment of Sinovac doses that were donated by the Chinese government.
But unlike the first 1 million Sinovac doses that arrived in two shipments (Feb. 28 and March 24) in the country, this second batch of 1 million doses from Sinovac BioTech Ltd. had been purchased by the Philippine government.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said that the Philippine government bought the 1 million Sinovac vaccines at P700 million.
The 1 million CoronaVac vaccines were brought to the country via a commercial flight from Beijing, China.
With the arrival of the 1 million additional Sinovac doses, there are now more than 2.5 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses already in the country, including the 525,600 doses from AstraZeneca that came from the World Health Organization (WHO) COVAX Facility.
President Duterte was accompanied by National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr, who also serves as the vaccine czar, and senator Christopher “Bong” Go in welcoming the Sinovac shipment on Monday, March 29.
Chinese ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian was also present during the turnover ceremony
Roque said that aside from health workers, these Sinovac vaccines will also be used for people with comorbidities.
Galvez also said that more of the procured vaccines will be arriving in the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2021.
“With the steady supplies, the government is targeting to inoculate 500,000 Filipinos weekly in at least 4,500 vaccination sites across the country,” a Palace statement said.
The government has already signed agreements with other pharmaceutical companies for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Moderna and Novavax. It is targeting to get at least 140 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 this year.
(Eagle News Service)