MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines will receive 600,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine donated by China this month, part of which will be used to vaccinate military personnel, a senior government official said Thursday.
President Roos spokesman Harry Roque said at a regular news conference that the arrival of the vaccines on February 23 is certain, but it will not be administered without the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
So far, only shots developed by AstraZeneca and the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech have been approved for emergency use in the country.
Roque said regulators allowed a “compassionate use” of 10,000 doses of a vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm for the safety of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Roque said 100,000 of the 600,000 doses of Sinovac would be given to soldiers and the rest to medical workers.
The Philippines plans to launch its mass vaccination program with 117,000 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine secured by the international COVAX vaccine division, which is due to be delivered this month.
The Philippines has negotiated supply agreements with Moderna, Gamaleya, Janssen, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Novavax for 148 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, most of which are expected in the second and third quarters of this year.
It aims to vaccinate 70 million adults this year, or two-thirds of the 108 million people in the country, to bring about herd immunity.
The Philippines recorded 541,000 infections, including 11,400 deaths.
(Reported by Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema; Edited by Martin Petty)