Additional 400K China-donated Sinovac arriving on March 24, 1M purchased doses on March 28

MANILA, Philippines — A total 1.4 million doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac are arriving in the Philippines this March, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Tuesday.

Galvez said of this figure, 400,000 doses which are donated by China will arrive first on March 24, while the government-procured one million doses will arrive on March 28

“This coming March, ‘yung 400,000 na donation ay darating this March 24. Inaayos na po natin ang papeles at ang pinaka earliest po niya is March 24. Also, yung purchase order na one million Sinovac ay darating din po sa 28,” Galvez said in an online Palace briefing.

(This coming March, the 400,000 donation will arrive on March 24. We are arranging the documents and the earliest arrival date is March 24. Also, the purchase order for one million Sinovac will arrive this coming 28th.)

President Rodrigo Duterte himself announced that the Chinese government will give 400,000 more vaccine doses on top of its previous donation of 600,000 CoronaVac shots.

Apart from these CoronaVac shots, Galvez has said 979,200 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility will arrive in the country in late March or early April.

This brings the total number of expected vaccines arriving in the Philippines this March and April to 2.3 million doses.

EDV