Manila, Philippines – The 1 Million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines procured by the Philippine government arrived in the country on Sunday, June 06, 2021. These vaccines were developed by the Chinese drug-maker Sinovac Biotech.
The said shipment landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Sunday around 7:35 am.
Also present in receiving of the package is the Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH) Francisco Duque III and Vaccine czar and National Task Force against coronavirus disease 2019 Chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr.
Chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said the government expects 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to be delivered this month, including 4.5 million of Sinovac vaccines, 2.2 million Pfizer vaccines, 2 million AstraZeneca vaccines, 1 million Sputnik vaccines and 250,000 Moderna vaccines.
According also to Galvez, the country is expected to received 2.2M Pfizer vaccines that will arrived from June 10 to 11 and another 1 million of Sinovac vaccines are expected to be delivered on June 10.
Philippine Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana announced that the government are expecting to received more doses of Sinovac vaccines.
The country has received a total of 6.5 million doses of SinoVac COVID-19 vaccines from which 1 million doses were donated by the Chinese government.
So far, the government has received a total of 9,329,050 Covid-19 doses of vaccines as of June 6, 2021.
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 1, 2021 | Gamaleya | 30,000 |
| May 7, 2021 | SinoVac | 1,500,000 |
| May 8, 2021 | AstraZeneca | 2,000,000 |
| May 10, 2021 | Pfizer-BioNTech | 193,050 |
| May 19, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| May 30, 2021 | Sputnik V | 50,000 |
| June 6, 2021 | Sinovac | 1,000,000 |
The Philippine government has distributed at least 8,108,290 doses of COVID vaccines as of May 30, 2021. Each person need 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Since the vaccination rolled out by March 1, 1,544,332 were fully vaccinated and 4,421,319 received their first dose of vaccine. As of June 6, 2021, the Philippine government has administered a total of 5,965,651 doses of vaccines.
The government also assures that the vaccines is free for all its people.
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
DOH: Vaccination Priorities
The government approved the vaccination for economic frontline workers in essential sectors (A4) and indigent Filipinos (A5) beginning of June. So far, only health workers, senior citizens and persons with comorbidities have undergone the vaccination program. Here are the following categories in vaccination program.
| Category | Priority group |
|---|---|
| A1 | Frontline health workers both national and local; public and non-public; health professional and non-professional (students, nursing aides, janitors, barangay health workers, et. al) |
| A2 | Senior citizens (60-years old and above) |
| A3 | Persons with comorbidities |
| A4 | Economic frontline workers in essential sectors including uniformed personnel. |
| A5 | Indigent Filipinos |
| B1 | Teachers and Social workers |
| B2 | Other Government Workers |
| B3 | Other Essential Workers such as grocery store workers, bank workers, retail workers, mall workers |
| B4 | Socio-demographic groups at significantly higher risk other than senior citizens and indigenous Filipinos such as persons deprived of liberty, persons with disabilities, Filipinos living in high-density areas, students |
| B5 | Overseas FIlipino Workers |
| B6 | Other remaining workforce |
| C | Rest of the Filipino population not otherwise included in the above priority groups |
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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