SOME 1.5 million of China-made vaccines arrived Friday morning, which brings to five million the total number of COVID-19 doses delivered in the country.
The vaccines under the CoronaVac brand arrived 8:00 a.m. at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport via a Cebu Pacific flight.
As a matter of protocol, authorities inspected the shipment before bringing it to a cold-storage facility in Marikina City.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez and Health Secretary Francisco Duque welcomed the shipment.
“This large shipment of COVID vaccines with Cebu Pacific brings us closer to our goal of protecting every Filipino as fast as possible,” Galvez said in a statement.
To date, five million doses of Sinovac vaccines have arrived in the Philippines — 1,500,000 on May 7; 500,000 on April 29; 500,000 on April 22; 500,000 on April 11; 1,000,000 on March 29; 400,000 on March 24; and 600,000 on February 28.
Interestingly, shipments delivered on February 28 and March 24 were donations made by the Chinese government to the Philippines.
Evaluation on the two-dose China-made Sinovac vaccine showed its efficacy ranging from 50 to 91 percent, depending on the recipient’s age and health condition.