FILE PHOTO: A booth displaying a coronavirus vaccine candidate from Sinovac Biotech Ltd is seen at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), following the COVID-19 outbreak, in Beijing, China September 4, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
MANILA, Philippines — One million doses of China’s Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccine are expected to be delivered in the country on April 22 and 29, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said Monday.
“This April may dumating na tayo na 500,000 Sinovac na prinocure (there are 500,000 procured Sinovac vaccines that arrived in the country). There’s another 1 million that’s arriving, 500,000 on April 22 and another on April 29, Cabotaje said in an online press briefing.
Cabotaje noted that there are also “indications” that Pfizer vaccines may be delivered in the country by end of April.
National Task Force against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon earlier said some 117,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine from the COVAX facility aree expected to arrive this month.
Earlier this month, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. also said that 1.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccines and 500,000 doses from Russia’s Gamaleya Institute are expected to arrive in the Philippines this April.
Cabotaje said an initial 20,000 doses may be delivered from Gamaleya before the bulk 480,000 doses by end of the month.
“In May we are expecting another 2.5 million of Sinovac and we are expecting the AstraZeneca from COVAX hopefully by May or the least very early part of June to cover ‘yung second dose natin ng binigay natin na first doses. So may mga 900,000 (the second dose that we gave as first dose. There could be 900,000 doses),” she said.
“Marami pang nakalaan na vaccines but you know it’s still the global shortage and [we don’t know] kung siguradong darating o hindi. But we have already signed, Secretary Galvez has already signed supply agreement. It’s just the availability of the vaccines on these dates,” the health official added.
(There are more allocated vaccines but there is a global shortage and we are not sure if these will be delivered or not. But Secretary Galvez has already signed supply agreements. It’s just the availability of the vaccines on these dates [that could affect the delivery.])
As of April 17, the Philippines has already administered over 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, composed of over 1.2 million as first dose and 191,982 as second dose.