MANILA – The Philippines secured 25 million doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine from Chinese drug maker Sinovac, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
During his virtual press conference on Monday, Roque said Sinovac will first send an initial 50,000 doses of the vaccine by next month on top of the 15,000 shots to be used for clinical trials. The rest of vaccine doses will arrive later this year.
“Darating na ang bakuna sa Pilipinas sa susunod na buwan,” he said. “Huwag naman kayong masyadong mag-celebrate d’yan dahil ang unang dadating po ay 50,000 doses lamang ng vaccine galing sa Sinovac.”
“Ibig sabihin, by February, at least 65,000 na ang mabibigyan ng bakuna,” added Roque, noting that other COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer will arrive in June, and AstraZeneca in July.
Roque added that Filipinos cannot choose the brand of the COVID-19 vaccine that they will get after recent surveys revealed public hesitancy to join the inoculation drive.
Those who are on the vaccination priority list can sign a waiver if they do not want to get the vaccine assigned to them. They will then lose their slot in the list, Roque said.
“Wala pong pilian kasi hindi naman natin mako-control talaga kung ano’ng darating at libre po ito,” he continued. “Totoo po, meron tayong lahat na karapatan para sa mabuting kalusugan pero hindi naman po pwede na pihikan dahil napakaraming Pilipino na dapat turukan.”
Authorities have reached a “consensus” on this matter, although the inter-agency task force leading the country’s pandemic response has yet to issue a resolution, said Roque.
The Philippines is negotiating with seven vaccine manufacturers to procure at least 148 million COVID-19 shots as it seeks to inoculate close to two-thirds of its population this year. Thirty-five million Filipinos are on the inoculation priority list./PN
