The Philippine government is expecting to receive 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech by February 23. According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, the vaccines are donated by Beijing to Manila. The first to receive the vaccine are frontliners and out of the 600,000 donated doses, 100,000 will be for the Philippine military.
Though the vaccine are expected to arrive in a few weeks, it is still for the authorization of the Philippine Food and Drug Administration. They are still waiting for answers to queries about the product.
“It (Sinovac) will be stored until such time that it is approved. If it is not issued EUA, it will be sent back,” said Harry Roque.
Though there are tests in different countries to check the varying efficacy, the firm said that trials in Brazil are at 50% efficacy while it is at 91.25% in Turkey and 65% in Indonesia.
