China will give 600,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to the Philippines free of charge, Malacañang said on Wednesday.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the vaccines were expected to arrive “within a month.”
“This is separate from what we ordered. This is what the Chinese Foreign Ambassador promised that President that they will be donating,” he said in an ANC interview.
Roque did not specify the brand of the donated vaccines.
However, he stressed that the vaccines would not be administered without an emergency use approval (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“It’s a donation, but of course, like Indonesia, because what happened in Indonesia was they received first the vaccines if it will arrive soon but they cannot administer it without EUA,” Roque said.
Should the FDA not grant the vaccines an EUA, Roque said the Philippines would return the vaccines.
“But the vaccines [that] will be donated to us have also been approved and given EUAs in other countries,” he added.
Roque earlier said that the country was more than ready to launch its mass vaccination drive, only awaiting delivery of vaccines.
The first batch of vaccines is expected to come from the Covax facility. John Ezekiel J. Hirro