Half a million jabs of coronavirus vaccines purchased by the government from Chinese drug manufacturer Sinovac BioTech arrived in the Philippines on Thursday.
A total of 1.5 million doses of CoronaVac vaccines have been received by the country in batches this April.
According to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., the vaccines will be immediately rolled out to areas recording high numbers of COVID-19 infections.
When the national government acquired its purchased 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses on April 22, the jabs were not immediately distributed to local government units.
After four days, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the shipment was still awaiting the certificate of analysis, which is one of the documents required by the Food and Drug Administration.
A total of 3.5 million doses of CoronaVac vaccines have been received by the Philippines through five shipments, with one million doses donated by the Chinese government.
Galvez claimed a “steady supply” of CoronaVac vaccines will be delivered in the coming days.
Meanwhile, another batch of half a million doses from Sinovac is being arranged in Beijing for arrival in the Philippines on Friday, according to Ambassador Chito Sta. Romana.
A shipment containing 1.5 million shots will be delivered on May 7, to be followed by another 500,000 doses also within May.
