President Rodrigo Duterte will receive his second Sinopharm shot even after telling China to “withdraw all Sinopharm vaccines,” Malacañang said on Thursday.
Duterte was given his first Sinopharm jab on Monday.
The vaccine administered to him has yet to be approved for emergency use and was only covered by a compassionate use license issued by the Food and Drug Administration or FDA.
On Wednesday night, Duterte addressed the nation and apologized for using an unregistered vaccine for his inoculation.
“We are sorry that we committed the things that you are criticizing us for. We accept responsibility. At ako mismo nagpaturok, well, it’s the decision of my doctor,” he said.
“Maybe it’s not acceptable to them but it’s legal actually. When the government allowed it to be used for compassionate use, that itself was an authority for people to be injected. Pero kakaunti lang ang naturukan nito,” he added.
He then disclosed that he had ordered Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian to “withdraw all Sinopharm vaccines, 1,000 of them.”
“Huwag ka na lang magpadala ng Sinopharm dito para walang gulo. Sabi ko ibigay mo lang sa amin ‘yong Sinovac na ginagamit sa lahat,” he said.
Roque said Duterte would still be able to complete his two-dose vaccination.
“Hindi ibabalik iyong pang-second dose ni presidente para matapos niya ang second dose niya,” the spokesman said.
To date, the FDA has approved seven vaccines for emergency use in the Philippines: Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Covaxin, Sputnik V, Janssen and Moderna. John Ezekiel J. Hirro