Davao City is asking the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to consider purchasing more Western vaccine brands due to the low acceptability of Davao residents of Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines from China.
The Sinopharm vaccine from China has been approved for emergency use in the Philippines, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Monday.
Chinese-produced Covid-19 vaccine Sinopharm is still required to undergo a series of regulatory processes despite being included in the World Health Organization’s emergency use listing (EUL).
“Hindi ibabalik iyong pang-second dose ni presidente para matapos niya ang second dose niya,” the spokesman said.
President Rodrigo Duterte received his first Covid-19 vaccine dose on Monday, partly to encourage other Filipinos to get inoculated, even though the vaccine administered to him has yet to be approved for emergency use.