A TOTAL of 1 million doses of CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine, the first tranche out of the total 25 million doses procured by the national government from Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, arrived in the country on Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
“The arrival of these vaccines is very timely. As we finish vaccinating healthcare frontliners, we will be able to use this new batch of purchased CoronaVac vaccines to extend vaccination to vulnerable Filipinos—or those with pre-existing conditions and comorbidities—who are most at risk of severe Covid-19 and highest chance of dying,” Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said.
Duque said the arrival of Coronavac vaccine is “most crucial ” especially now that the National Capital Region (NCR)+ or the Greater Manila Area is experiencing a surge.
Aside from Duque, President Duterte, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, National Task Force against Covid-19 chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr. and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian received the vaccine doses after a Philippine Airlines all-cargo flight from Beijing landed at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City past 4 p.m.
“The arrival of these vaccines is great news as we are beginning to see the fruits of our negotiation efforts after months of hard work to provide vaccines for our people. This is but the first of the many other doses we have negotiated in order to achieve our goal of herd immunity,” Galvez said.
Galvez added, “We are expecting the delivery of around 1.5 to 4 million of the remaining procured doses from Sinovac by April and May 2021 together with the additional 979,200 AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the World Health Organization-led Covax facility. These will allow the country to further expand coverage of our vaccination program.”
The remaining 24 million CoronaVac doses procured by the national government are scheduled to arrive in the following months. With the arrival of both procured vaccines and vaccines from the Covax Facility, the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination program is expected to ramp up as the government recently approved the simultaneous rollout of vaccination to priority groups A1 to A3.
Additionally, the DOH maintained that the Covid-19 vaccine is only an added protection to existing preventive measures such as the intensified public health measures.
“Even with the arrival of vaccine supplies, we continue to call for the public’s cooperation in this fight against the pandemic. While Covid-19 remains a public health emergency, a great deal of caution and vigilance shall still take place to ensure everyone’s protection from this disease,” Duque concluded.
Image credits: PAL
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