Philippines gets 1 million more Sinovac doses
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Sunday received one million more doses of Sinovac as part of its procurement of the Chinese drugmaker's COVID-19 vaccine.
Cebu Pacific Flight 5J671 landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay this morning, per the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
The shipment brought the number of Sinovac jabs in the country to 6.5 million, of which, some one million were donated by Beijing.
It was the first delivery to the Philippines this June. Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. has said that they are expecting some 10 million doses to arrive this month.
Vaccination efforts in the country began in March. The much-needed drive came as a new surge in infections came that sent many areas back to tighter community quarantines.
Per government figures, some 1.2 million Filipinos have completed their doses as of May 30. Officials are targeting to inoculate 50 to 70 million this year.
Those who got their first dose were at 3.97 million by end of last month, with 5.18 million doses since administered.
Other jabs in the country aside from Sinovac are: AstraZeneca and Pfizer from the COVAX Facility and Sputnik V from Russia. — Christian Deiparine
The national government has so far secured two official deals for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in the Philippines, one with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Watch this space for bite-sized developments on the vaccines in the Philippines. (Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire says the general population may now get their second booster jab.
"We're just waiting for the release of implementing guidelines, then we'll start rolling out our second booster for the general population," she says. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Amid questions on vaccines being administered, the Department of Health assures the public all doses are safe and effective as the “process of extending shelf life goes through thorough stability studies.”
“The government ensures that every vaccine that is injected with an extended shelf life has gone through studies, and is still safe and effective against COVID-19,” it adds.
Government must increase vaccination capacity across the Philippines in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the corona virus, Sen. Risa Hontiveros says.
She says local government units and the private sector can work together to put up more vaccination centers and deploy more vaccination teams to get more people inoculated against COVID-19.
"The active COVID cases have nearly doubled in three days. The positivity rate is almost four times the ceiling set by the World Health Organization. Huwag na nating hintayin na sobrang lumala pa ang sitwasyon bago tayo gumawa ng paraan para mapabilis ang ating pagbabakuna."
FDA chief Eric Domingo says that its agency has given emergency approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The United States immunized around 900,000 children aged five-to-11 against Covid in the first week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for them, a White House official says Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more have made appointments at pharmacies, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients tells reporters.
"The program is just getting up to full strength," he says, adding most of the shots were given in the last couple of days alone. — AFP
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