600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine to arrive in PH Sunday – envoy

BY ROY C. MABASA

The Chinese Embassy in Manila has confirmed that the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine donated by the Chinese government will arrive in Manila on Sunday, Feb. 28.

“Both teams have been working round-the-clock to make it happen. It is a fine tradition between China and the Philippines to help each other in trying times.

A friend in need is a friend indeed,” Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian said in a statement posted on his official Facebook account.

Huang said the donation of vaccines is another testament to the solidarity as well as profound friendship and partnership between our two peoples and two countries.

The vaccine donation was first announced when Chinese Foreign Minister and State Counselor Wang Yi visited Manila last month.

Huang thanked all those who have worked so hard to make the delivery of the vaccine to the Philippines happen.

“I hope the vaccines will help kick off Philippines’ mass inoculation campaign to curb the pandemic and allow Filipinos’ life to return to normal at the earliest,” he said.

The Philippine government earlier said the 150,000 doses of the arriving Chinese-made vaccines will be given to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

On Thursday, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque stated that the Sinovac vaccines can be rolled out as early as Monday, saying, “our countrymen are excited.”

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Sinovac Biotech’sCOVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccine after a thorough review by the country’s medical and regulatory experts.

According to FDA, interim data from the ongoing phase 3 trial of Sinovac shows that when the vaccine is used on clinically healthy members of the community aged 18-59, it has an efficacy of 65.3 to 91.2 percent after the first dose.