The Philippine Department of Health has approved the use of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine from China for Filipinos aged six to 17.18 years old.

According to Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, the approval of the Sinovac vaccine came after the recommendation of the Health Technology Assessment Council.

“Ang mga tagubilin hinggil sa pag-apruba nito ay na-issue na natin kahapon through a department memorandum at maaari na itong umpisahan ang implementasyon,” Vergeire said.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the use of the Chinese vaccine on minors on March 11.

Sinovac was the third Covid-19 vaccine the country used in its pediatric vaccination program, following Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

The Philippines has administered 164,514,866 Covid-19 vaccine doses as of Oct. 16, enough to fully vaccinate nearly 73.4 million Filipinos.

The country has 25,039 active Covid-19 cases as of Oct. 18. John Ezekiel J. Hirro