Malacañang on Thursday clarified that the government is not favoring some COVID-19 vaccines over the others, saying that country will utilize safe and efficient vaccines that will be available for the country.
The government earlier announced that the first batch of China’s Sinovac vaccine doses are set to arrive in the Philippines this February. Some doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will enter the country in the same month.
“Ang pinag-uusapan lang po, aling bakuna ang makakarating sa lalong mabilis na panahon (We are just talking about vaccines that will be delivered at the soonest time possible),” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque stated.
He asked, “bakit tayo tatanggi sa limang milyon na Sinovac na makakabakuna na pwedeng labanan pati po itong mas nakahahawang bagong virus strain (why will we reject 5 million Sinovac [doses] that can fight even the more transmissible new strain)?”
Amid doubts raised on the Sinovac vaccine, Roque explained that the reported 50 percent efficacy rate of the vaccine is still within the World Health Organization (WHO) standard.
“Basta maaprubahan ng FDA, tabla po ‘yan sa kaligtasan at epektibo, pagiging epektibo kasama po ng mga brands na galing sa mga western companies (As long as it is approved by the FDA, it is at par in terms of safety and efficacy with brands from western companies),” he assured.
Aside from its 50 percent efficacy, it was also reported that those inoculated with the Sinovac vaccine have a 78 percent chance of getting only mild COVID-19 case or become asymptomatic.
As for the cost of the Sinovac vaccine, he pointed out that it is only the third most expensive “out of six brands.”
Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Wednesday explained that there are two types of prices in vaccine negotiations. These are the market and COVAX prices. The latter could be reduced by almost 300 percent.
Meanwhile, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is set to discuss the expansion and extension of travel restrictions amid the new strain of COVID-19. – Report from Cleizl Pardilla
