MANILA, Philippines — The Chinese government needs three days before delivering some 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines it is donating to the Philippines, Malacañang said Monday.
The Food and Drug Administration earlier granted Sinovac an emergency use authorization (EUA) for its Covid-19 vaccine.
“Parating na po ang ating mga bakuna (The vaccines are coming,),” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online Palace briefing.
“Kinakailangan lamang ng gobyerno ng Tsina ng tatlong araw mula ngayong araw na ito kung kailan naaprubahan ang EUA para maiparating sa atin ang Sinovac,” he added.
(The Chinese government only needs three days from the date of issuance of the EUA to get the Sinovac vaccines delivered to us.)
Presidential spokesperson Atty. Harry Roque. YANCY LIM / PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO
Roque said the “three areas to first receive the vaccines will be Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao.”
The arrival of these donated vaccines was initially scheduled on Feb. 23.
“Ang sabi po sa akin ni Sec. Vince Dizon, ang ating deputy chief implementer ng NTF [National Task Force against Covid-19], isang araw lang ang kinakailangan natin so sa pang-apat na araw, baka puwede na. Pero ayoko na po mag-promise at baka may mangyari nanaman,” Roque said.
(Sec. Vince Dizon of the NTF told me that we only need a day so by the fourth day from today, we might start vaccinating. But I don’t want to promise as we might see another unfortunate circumstance.)
“Pero asahan po natin, wala na pong matagal na delay para magsimula ang ating bakuna. Pasensya na po kayo naantala ng ilang araw lang naman.”
(But we can expect that there will be no more delay to start the vaccination. I’m sorry that there were delays for a few days.)