FILE PHOTO: A booth displaying a coronavirus vaccine candidate from China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a unit of state-owned pharmaceutical giant China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), 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 — Some 100,000 doses of China-made Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were delivered to the Philippines on Wednesday.
The flight carrying the anti-coronavirus jab arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 at around 2:30 p.m.
UAE previously said it intends to donate 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines.
These UAE-donated doses were the first batch of Sinopharm shots that was officially delivered to the country as it is also the first shipment of the China-developed jab that the government has publicly disclosed.
To recall, members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG), as well as the military, were inoculated with “smuggled” doses of the Sinopharm vaccine last year, when the jab was yet to secure an emergency use authorization (EUA) from regulators.
Early this year, the Chinese government’s donation of Sinopharm vaccine doses and its subsequent delivery to the Philippines were not made public. This arrangement was only revealed after the airing of President Rodrigo Duterte’s vaccination of a dose of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.
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Subsequently, the Department of Health filed for Sinopharm’s EUA in the country, following the vaccine’s approval for emergency use by the World Health Organization.
It was only last June that the local Food and Drug Administration announced its granting of a EUA to Sinopharm’s anti-coronavirus vaccine.