By Alec Go, Allan Francisco
The initial batch of COVID-19 vaccines purchased by the Philippine government arrived in the Philippines Monday afternoon.
One million doses of Sinovac-developed CoronaVac from China arrived at the Villamor Air Base past 4 PM aboard a Philippine Airlines (PAL) aircraft.
President Rodrigo Duterte personally witnessed the event and was joined by Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr., Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, and Chinese Ambassador Huang Xillian.
“We expect the vaccine from China will play an increasingly important role in the inoculation process of this country and economic recovery,” the Chinese ambassador stated.
Galvez reported that there will be another batch to be delivered next month citing that, “Sa Sinovac, may darating na 1.5 million pa this coming April, then 2 million this coming May, then 4.5 million sa June (From Sinovac, 1.5 million doses will be arriving April, then 2 million this coming May, then 4.5 million in June).”
“Then sa (in the) succeeding months until December, mayroon po tayong matatanggap na 25 million (we will receive 25 million),” he added.
Secretary Duque said the vaccines are priced “the same as what was paid for in Indonesia and Brazil.” This will be used to cover priority beneficiaries such as health workers in NCR and some provinces in Regions 3 and 4.
The vaccines were transported Monday evening to the cold storage facility of Metropac Movers, Inc. in Marikina City.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in an earlier briefing that ₱700 million were spent to acquire the one million doses. The vaccines are part of the expanded vaccination program covering the simultaneous inoculation of Priority Groups A1, A2, and A3.
As of 6PM of March 27, at total of 656,331 health frontline workers have been inoculated against COVID-19.
