Manila, Philippines – The 1.5 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines procured by the Philippine government arrived in the country on Friday, May 7, 2021. These vaccines were developed by the Chinese drug-maker Sinovac Biotech.
The huge shipment landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 via Cebu Pacific flight 5J 671 at 8:13 AM.
Secretary Carlito Galzvez Jr, the chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19 said that the bulk shipment brings light to the goal of protecting the Filipino people against the virus. To quote,
This large shipment of COVID vaccines with Cebu Pacific brings us closer to our goal of protecting every Filipino as fast as possible, We are grateful to Cebu Pacific for joining forces with the government to support us in ensuring the success of this vaccine roll-out.
Present in receiving the package are the Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH), Francisco Duque III and Secretary Galvez.
So far, the country has received a total of 5 million doses of SinoVac COVID-19 vaccines from which 1 million doses were donated by the Chinese government.
Here is the table showing the number of vaccines delivered in the country from February 2021 to present.
| Date | Name of Vaccines | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 28, 2021 | SinoVac | 600,000 |
| March 24, 2021 | SinoVac | 400,000 |
| March 29, 2021 | SinoVac | 1,000,000 |
| April 11, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| April 19, 2021 | AstraZeneca | 525,600 |
| April 22, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| April 29, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| May 7, 2021 | SinoVac | 1,500,000 |
The Philippine government has distributed at least 3,970,680 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Each person need 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Source: ABS-CBN COVID-19 tracker
Since the vaccination rolled out by March 1, 2021, only 320,586 were fully vaccinated and 1,744,649 received their first dose. As of May 4, 2021, the Philippine government has administered a total of 2,065,235 doses so far.
The government is also expecting to receive AstraZeneca vaccines from World Health Organization (WHO) and from Pfizer-BioNTech within this year.
The target numbers of full vaccination by the end of the year are at least 70 million individuals.
See Also: Latest tally of the COVID-19 cases in the Philippines
Efficacy Rates of SinoVac Vaccine
Based on the evaluation of SinoVac vaccines by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the efficacy rates are from 65.3% to 91.2% to aged 18-59 healthy individuals. 50.4% efficacy to those exposed in Covid-19 and 51% to 52% efficacy rates on senior citizens (60 above).
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very good but we need very fast inplementations.