DOH greenlights distribution of 1 million Sinovac vaccine doses

The latest batch of one million doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine arrives via a Cebu Pacific flight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Thursday, June 10, 2021. (Photo courtesy of National Task Force against COVID-19)

MANILA, Philippines — The one million doses of Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine that were recently delivered to the country can now be distributed after the manufacturer submitted the certificate of analysis for the jabs, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday.

“Dumating na kahapon ‘yung certificate of analysis and we can now distribute ‘yung current na Sinovac na meron tayo,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said over ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

(The certificate of analysis was submitted yesterday and we can now distribute the newly-delivered Sinovac vaccines that we have.)

Vergeire earlier said the delivery of one million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine, was put on hold since the certificate has yet to be submitted by the manufacturer. The vaccines arrived in the country last Thursday.

The certificate of analysis is necessary to ensure that the delivered vaccines are of good quality to ensure their safety and efficacy, the health official explained.

Meanwhile, Vergeire also said the syringes for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech shots have also arrived and are already being distributed to vaccination hubs.

According to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday, over 10.3 million of the 12.7 million vaccine doses so far delivered to the country have already been deployed to vaccination centers. He said over 7 million vaccine doses have already been administered, with 5.1 million provided as first doses and more than 1.9 million provided as second doses.

/MUF