CoronaVac implementation begins; AstraZeneca delayed

The Philippines begins its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Monday with the first 600,000 doses of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine donated at major government hospitals in Metro Manila.

The country was expecting a larger rollout, but the delivery of 525,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from global vaccine supply group COVAX on Monday will be delayed by a week due to a supply problem, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

President Duterte attended a ceremony to mark the arrival of the initial 600,000 doses of CoronaVac from Sinovac Biotech at Villamor Air Force Base in Pasay City on Sunday afternoon. A Chinese military plane delivered the vaccines.

“With this very important shipment, I am confident that there will be more batches of vaccines available very quickly until all Filipinos have the opportunity to be vaccinated as soon as possible,” Duterte said.

The president said that the Chinese donation highlights the friendly relations between Manila and Beijing.

“I convey my sincere thanks to the Chinese people and the Chinese government for this gesture of friendship and solidarity, the hallmark of the Philippine-China partnership,” Duterte said.

The Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, said that “more Chinese vaccines procured by the Philippine government will surely arrive soon as expected.”

He was referring to 25 million doses of CoronaVac that will be delivered to the Philippines in batches this year.

“It is a good tradition between China and the Philippines to help each other in difficult times. Our two governments and peoples have been helping each other and coming together to fight the pandemic since the virus outbreak, forging a closer partnership between China and the Philippines, ”Huang said.

With the arrival of the Sinovac vaccine, the launch of the vaccine in the Philippines formally begins, said Carlito Gálvez Jr., head of the National COVID-19 Task Force and lead implementer of the vaccination program.

President Duterte ordered the first round of vaccinations to begin in the first week of March, after the delivery of 117,000 doses of COVAX’s Pfizer vaccine was delayed in February.

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, chairman of the Senate health committee and former aide to the president, said vaccines for Visayas and Mindanao would also arrive this month.

Duque announced the delay in delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccines in a television interview Sunday afternoon.

“We received a communication earlier today that the delivery would be delayed by about a week,” Duque said. He cited the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying the delay was due to a supply problem.

Waiting for AstraZeneca

Gálvez said the AstraZeneca vaccines were part of the 5.5 million to 9 million doses the Philippines had requested from COVAX, a vaccine exchange scheme led by WHO and the GAVI vaccine alliance to ensure equitable supply of vaccines to poor countries.

The AstraZeneca vaccine offers front-line healthcare workers a choice when deciding whether to get vaccinated.

Many of them said they were willing to wait for the Swedish-British drug and step aside from the tail of CoronaVac, which had been found to be only 50.4 percent effective in protecting healthcare workers in COVID-19 rooms.

Dr. Tony Leachon, a health advocate and former consultant to the government’s pandemic managers, praised the government’s effort, but said: “I would like to wait for AstraZeneca for the following reasons: higher efficacy rate, track record of company, clinical study published in a peer-reviewed journal, [and] clinical studies reviewed and endorsed by the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) ”.

“The fact that [health-care workers] Now having a choice is better because the primary consideration is to have them protected in the shortest time possible. They will not feel forced if they do not like the other [brand]”Said Dr. Gene Nisperos of the Community Medicine Development Foundation.

Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 said its members would also look forward to HTAC’s recommendation. “It will help us decide whether to accept [CoronaVac]”Said Dr. Antonio Dans, spokesman for the group.

Dans said HTAC, an independent council of medical experts that advises the Department of Health (DOH), is ready to review data from the Sinovac trial this week.

Regardless of the brand, Dans said, “as long as [approved by] the Food and Drug Administration and HTAC, we think the best vaccine is the one in your arm. “

Dr Jonas del Rosario, a spokesman for Philippine General Hospital (PGH), said the latest survey of hospital staff showed that 12 percent of staff were willing to get vaccinated with CoronaVac.

“This is only voluntary. We will not impose it on anyone. Doctors, nurses and other PGH employees have the right to refuse, ”said Del Rosario, a COVID-19 survivor who lost both parents to the disease. It was previously announced that he would be the first to get vaccinated at the hospital.

100,000 shots for military

Of the 600,000 doses of CoronaVac that arrived on Sunday, 100,000 doses will go to the military. The rest will go to health workers.

Five to six refrigerated vans escorted by police transported CoronaVac shots delivered Sunday via C5 Road to MetroPac Movers Inc. (MMI), a third-party DOH logistics and warehousing provider at Barangay Concepción I in the city of Marikina. .

From MMI, a few hundred doses were transported late at night to PGH, Lung Center of the Philippines, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center and Sanatium (Tala), Veterans Memorial Medical Center, Philippine National Police General Hospital in Camp Crame and the Victoriano Luna Medical Center.

Simultaneous “symbolic” vaccinations at the six hospitals are scheduled for 9 am Monday, with Duque and Gálvez in the front row at the Pulmonary Center and at the PGH, respectively, Go said in a radio interview Sunday.

But President Duterte later told reporters that he and his top officials would later be inoculated with another vaccine made in China that he did not mention.

The president said his doctor thought he should get another brand.

“It is a Chinese brand, but not [CoronaVac], he said.

Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said he also offered MMI the storage of AstraZeneca vaccines, due to its proximity to hospitals in Metro Manila.

A DOH source said that the Sinovac vaccines did not come with syringes, but that DOH was providing 0.5 ml syringes with automatic deactivation for the first round of vaccines.

Dr Rommel Lobo, from the National Post Adverse Effects Immunization Committee, said that supplying hospitals with epinephrine, a common drug for the treatment of anaphylaxis or severe allergic reaction, was sufficient.

—WITH REPORTS FROM JEROME ANING, TINA G. SANTOS, DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN, NESTOR CORRALES, DAPHNE GALVEZ AND REUTERS

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