First batch of COVID-19 1M vaccines purchased reaches PH



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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 29) – The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines purchased by the Duterte administration arrived in the country on Monday.

President Rodrigo Duterte witnessed the arrival of 1 million doses of CoronaVac vaccines, worth $ 700 million, manufactured by the Chinese manufacturer Sinovac Biotech.

The Philippines plans to purchase 25 million doses of Sinovac vaccines before the end of the year.

Duterte, Senator Bong Go, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III, the National Task Force Against the Chief Implementer of COVID-19 and Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr., and the Chinese Ambassador in the Philippines, Huang Xilian, were present to receive the vaccine doses. at Villamor Air Force Base in Pasay City.

In a joint statement issued by the Department of Health and the NTF, Gálvez said the arrival of the vaccines was “great news.”

“The arrival of these vaccines is great news, as we are beginning to see the fruits of our negotiating efforts after months of hard work to provide vaccines to our people. This is just the first of many other doses that we have negotiated. to achieve our goal of herd immunity, “he said.

Previously, the Chinese embassy shared photos of vaccines loaded onto a Philippine Airlines plane prior to shipment.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, at the same time president of the National Working Group against COVID-19, said that the vaccines will be deployed in barangays in the NCR Plus bubble with high coronavirus infections, according to the suggestion of vaccine czar Carlito Gálvez. Jr.

Prior to this shipment, the Philippines had only received vaccines donated by China and other nations despite the Duterte administration incurring billions of pesos in loans from multilateral lenders. Beijing gave 1 million doses of CoronaVac and the global COVAX initiative shipped 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.

Gálvez revealed on March 22 that the country has so far secured contracts with four COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers: Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Novavax.

Amid complaints from legislators and citizens about the slow inoculation campaign, Gálvez said the government aims to increase its weekly vaccinations from 30,000 to 300,000 or even up to 1 million per week, to achieve its goal of vaccinating 70 million Filipinos to end of the year.



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