DOH: 2-3 weeks to deliver, administer 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine

The aircraft carrying China’s donation of 600,000 doses of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine arrives in the Philippines Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. (Photo courtesy of PCOO)

MANILA, Philippines — It will take two to three weeks for the 600,000 doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine to be administered to priority groups, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

“We are looking at two weeks for us to be able to roll it out properly and then we will have the next two weeks to monitor if there would still be a quick substitution list that will be used. So basically in two to three weeks we will be able to utilize these because we already have a plan of rolling it out,” Health Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.

The quick substitution list contains the names of those who would substitute original vaccine beneficiaries who would not show up or be able to receive the vaccines on the inoculation day.

 “Hospitals have been apprised already and they are prepared and we’ll start a roll out today, and in the succeeding days we’ll go to the other hospitals,” Vergeire added. 

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire

 On Sunday, the initial doses of CoronaVac vaccine from the Chinese firm arrived in the Philippines.

Doses of the vaccine were transported to the to Philippine General Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center and Sanitarium (Tala), Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Philippine National Police General Hospital in Camp Crame, and Victoriano Luna Medical Center early Monday morning.

Simultaneous “symbolic” vaccinations in the six hospitals are scheduled this Monday.

Covid-19 vaccines from Sinovac earlier secured an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

 FDA Director-General Eric Domingo said that the vaccine’s efficacy rate on healthcare workers stands at 50.4 percent based on clinical trials conducted in Brazil, and is not ideal for medical frontliners exposed to Covid-19 patients.

He also said that the vaccine showed a higher efficacy rate of 65.3 percent among clinically healthy people within the 18-59 age bracket based on clinical trials in Indonesia, and 91.2 percent based on clinical trials in Turkey. 

 Llast Friday, however, the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (Nitag) recommended the use of CoronaVac even for health workers.

Vergeire earlier explained that the Nitag “has deemed it sufficient to recommend the use of the vaccine for HCWS (health-care workers) as it bears to reiterate that our goal for prioritizing health-care workers for vaccination is to reduce morbidity and mortality among their group while they maintain the most critical essential health services.”

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