A MILLION doses of the Sinopharm vaccine and another million doses of the Sinovac vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) were delivered to the Philippines.
The Sinopharm vaccines were donated by China while the Sinovac vaccines were part of the 25 million doses procured by the government from the Chinese biopharmaceutical company. Both vaccines were developed using inactivated Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
The Sinopharm vaccines arrived in two tranches – 739,200 doses arrived in the country on Friday, August 20, 2021, and 260,800 doses were delivered on Saturday, August 21.
The Sinovac vaccines arrived on Saturday. Aside from those procured by the government, one million doses of Sinovac vaccine donated by China were also delivered to the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte thanked the Chinese government for its continuous support and assistance to the Philippines during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are receiving these life-saving vaccines with much gratitude and high hopes as we continue to fight Covid-19 and its variants,” he said.
“These initiatives are indeed a testament of the goodwill of the Chinese government and the deep, strong relations between the Philippines and China. These additional doses will definitely boost our efforts to ramp up the vaccination rollout and allow us to achieve herd immunity soon,” he added.
From February to August 21, a total of 48,522,890 doses from various manufacturers have been delivered to the country.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said more than five million doses are due to arrive in the last week of August which will bring the country’s cumulative vaccine supply to more than 53 million doses.
As of August 20, a total of 13,049,907 individuals have been fully vaccinated while 16,940,783 others received the first dose. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo / SunStar Philippines)