The Philippines looks to start Covid-19 vaccine drive by February with doses from Sinovac

Name: Coronavirus: what we know so far about the new strain of Covid-19
Uploaded: 2021-01-11T13:19:05.000Z
Duration: 3 min 57 s
Description: Coronavirus: what we know so far about the new strain of Covid-19

The first 50,000 doses of the 25 million secured from the Chinese firm are expected next month, with the government seeking to inoculate more than half the population by 2021

Filipinos will not be able to choose which vaccine they get, and trust over vaccine safety may be another hurdle

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A medical worker prepares a shot of the Sinovac Biotech vaccine. Photo: EPA

Raissa Robles

Published: 9:19pm, 11 Jan 2021Updated: 9:31pm, 11 Jan 2021

The Philippines is looking to begin its Covid-19 vaccination drive next month, when the first 50,000 doses it has secured from Chinese firm Sinovac are expected to arrive, according to government officials, as the country seeks to vaccinate more than half the population by this year.

Vaccine tsar Carlito Galvez Jnr, on Monday told a Senate inquiry that priority for the initial inoculations would be given to health care workers, and that the bulk of vaccinations would begin in the second half of 2021. His announcement came as the Philippines recorded 2,052 new cases, bringing the country’s total number of Covid-19 infections to almost 489,800, with 9,416 related deaths.

Galvez said US firm Pfizer had committed “a very sizeable amount” of doses, while the country had secured 13 million from AstraZeneca of Britain and 25 million from Russian firm Gamaleya. He said he was still in negotiations for between 15 million and 20 million doses from American company Moderna.

“If we are successful, we will have 144 million doses [locked in by this month],” Galvez said, though he added that actual deliveries would be staggered and could take until 2023.

He added that Pfizer vaccine would only be given in Metro Manila and other highly urbanised cities where cold-storage facilities were present, and that the company would deliver the doses to the vaccination area itself.

At the same Senate hearing, the World Health Organization representative to the Philippines, Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe, said the first shipment of vaccines could be arriving in Manila by February 20 under the Covax Facility.

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Coronavirus: what we know so far about the new strain of Covid-19

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Monday said the government had also signed a deal with Sinovac for 25 million doses, following a separate agreement with the Serum Institute of India to buy 30 million doses from the United States’ Novavax.

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