Palace: Economic frontliners, military may be first to get Sinovac vaccine

MANILA, Philippines — Economic frontliners and military personnel may be the first to get inoculated using China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, Malacañang said Monday.

Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be the first to arrive in the Philippines after it has secured an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and 600,000 doses donated by the Chinese government are expected to be delivered within the month.

However, FDA has advised not to administer it to healthcare workers and senior citizens, who are at the top of the priority list for Covid-19 vaccinations, due to its low efficacy rate.

This means the government will have to change its list of priorities, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said, where economic frontliners would be the first to get immunized along with military personnel.

“Baka mauna na ‘yung mga tinatawag natin na economic frontliners na kasama ng ating kasundaluhan,” he said in a Palace briefing.

“I anticipate that it will be first given to the armed forces and to the economic frontliners before we go to the indigents,” Roque added.

This will have to be decided by the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) which will soon meet to discuss the matter.

Military personnel were guaranteed to get vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine since 100,000 doses were donated by the Chinese government to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Economic frontliners include transport workers, farmers, miners, fishermen, and those working in export-oriented industries and business processing outsourcing (BPO) industries.

“Ito ‘yung mga nagta-trabaho sa mga industriya na bukas noong panahon ng enhanced community quarantine (ECQ),” Roque said.

The Chinese government needs three days before delivering the promised initial doses of Sinovac vaccines to the Philippines, Roque added.

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