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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines plans to purchase 1 million to 2 million doses per month of CoronaVac from China for a total of 25 million doses by the end of the year, according to the country’s ambassador to China, José Santiago Sta. Romana.
The Philippines has been using donated doses of Sinovac in its mass immunization program.
But it has also purchased 1 million doses of CoronaVac from Sinovac Biotech that are expected to arrive on Monday.
“After that, the government plan is about 1 (million) to 2 million doses each month of Sinovac, almost every month, for a total of about 25 million until the end of the year,” Sta. Romana said in a online briefing.
He also said that the Philippine Embassy in Beijing had been facilitating communication between Sinopharm, another Chinese vaccine manufacturer, and the Department of Health and the Interagency Working Group for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases so that it could soon obtain an authorization for use. (USA) for its vaccine against COVID-19.
Sinopharm would need to submit data to the Food and Drug Administration in order to obtain an EUA, he said.
It was also necessary to clarify who the local Sinopharm distributor would be, he said.
Sta. Romana said the Philippines had not relaxed its protection of the country’s sovereignty in the Western Philippine Sea just because China donated COVID-19 vaccines to the country.
The country has a two-track policy in which it can cooperate with China in responding to the pandemic, but also protect its territory, he said.
The Philippines has rejected the Chinese incursion into its waters, he said.
“If China plans to go soft, we have shown that [the vaccine donation] has no connection. This is the other way in matters where we have differences or disputes on sovereignty and sovereign rights issues, we stand firm and protest when necessary. We back off when necessary, ”he said.
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