MANILA, Philippines (AP) – The Philippines received its first COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, among the last in Southeast Asia to receive the critical doses, despite having the second highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the most severe .
A Chinese military transport plane with 600,000 doses of vaccine donated by China has arrived at an air base in the capital. President Rodrigo Duterte and top cabinet officials expressed relief and thanked Beijing for the vaccination of Sinovac Biotech Ltd., located in China, in a ceremony on television.
“COVID-19 vaccines should be considered a global public good and made available to all, rich and poor,” Duterte said, warning that “no one is safe until everyone is safe.”
Huang Xilian, an ambassador of China, in the Philippines, said that despite its own domestic needs, China has carried out vaccinations to 27 countries. It added “no winter lasts forever” when China and other countries help each other in solidarity when the crisis strikes.
Vaccinations of health workers and top officials led by the health secretary would begin Monday in six Metropolitan Manila hospitals.
Apart from the Sinovac vaccine donated, the government ordered 25 million doses from the Chinese company separately. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the delivery of an initial 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which was initially scheduled for Monday, would be delayed by a week due to supply problems.
The initial deliveries are a small fraction of at least 148 million doses that the government has negotiated to ensure Western and Asian businesses vaccinate about 70 million Filipinos for free in a massive campaign. Most of the vaccines are expected to arrive later this year.
The Philippines reported more than 576,000 infections, including 12,318 deaths, the second-largest total in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Exclusions and quarantine restrictions have caused Manila’s economy to return to one of the region’s worst recessions, causing unemployment and hunger.
Duterte’s government has been criticized for lagging behind most other Southeast Asian countries in securing vaccines, including many smaller and poorer countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
The outspoken Duterte said wealthy Western countries had hampered massive doses for their citizens, leaving poorer countries scrambling for the rest. In a sign of desperation, the president said in December last year that he would suspend a major security deal with the United States to enable large numbers of U.S. troops to conduct war exercises in the Philippines if Washington did not deliver at least 20 million doses. Covid19 vaccine.
“No vaccine, stay here,” Duterte said then.
The delivery of Chinese vaccines has been delayed due to the absence of an emergency permit from the Manila Food and Drug Administration. Sinovac received the authorization last Monday. Western pharmaceutical companies also wanted the Philippine government to guarantee that it would take responsibility for lawsuits and claims for damages due to possible adverse side effects of the vaccine, officials said.
Apart from supply problems, there were concerns about the safety of the vaccine, mainly due to a fear of dengu vaccine that led the administration of Duterte to halt a massive vaccination process in 2017.
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Associated Press author Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.