The 600,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Sinovac has reached the MetroPac Movers Inc. facility in Barangay Concepcion Uno in Marikina City where they will be secured first before being distributed to hospitals.
Marikina Mayor Marcy Teodoro inspected the cold chain facility before the arrival of the first batch of the vaccines.
The vaccines, donated by China, arrived at the Villamor Airbase on a Chinese Y-20 Transport aircraft about 4 p.m. Sunday.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. announced that the arrival of the first batch of vaccines marked the start of the country’s inoculation program.
The first shots of the vaccines will be done in various Covid-19 referral hospitals across the National Capital Region starting Monday.
Priority to receive the first shots are frontline health workers, indigent senior citizens, the rest of the indigent population, and uniformed personnel.
Meanwhile, Galvez and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III announced that the 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility on March 1 would be delayed for a week.
As of this writing, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration has allowed the emergency use authorization for vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac.
The government plans to vaccinate 50 to 70 million individuals this year. Ronald dela Cruz