At least 500,000 doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac arrived in Pasay City yesterday, bringing the Philippines’ total number of vaccines to 3,525,600.
The doses arrived from Beijing at 5:16 pm on board Philippine Airlines flight PR359. Welcoming the shipment were vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. The Philippine government has bought around 25 million doses of CoronaVac, most of which will arrive in the country in the latter part of the year. The first batch of Sinovac’s jabs arrived on March 29 and April 11. There will be 500,000 more doses that are expected to arrive on April 29.
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Galvez said that about 100,000 doses will be allotted to Metro Manila, the epicenter of the pandemic, and will be deployed “within two to three days.”
Meanwhile, at least 500,000 doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine will arrive on April 25, while 480,000 more doses will arrive on April 29.
The Philippines is aiming to innoculate 70 million people this year, but as of April 20, only 1.26 million doses have been given, with more than 209,000 people getting dully vaccinated.
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