Malacañang said that those living in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao City will be the first to receive the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac as the first 600,000 doses of the CoronaVac shots are expected to arrive this month.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after the local Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine.
In his Monday presser, Roque said that the government already has a list of the first recipients of the CoronaVac shots and they are from the National Capital Region (NCR), Cebu, and Davao.
"We know that the three areas that will first receive the vaccines will be Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao," he said.
"We already have the list of areas depending on areas with the highest attack rates over a period of time," he added.
The government has explained that the first in the vaccination rollout are those living in areas with high COVID-19 cases while first on the priority list are healthcare workers followed by senior citizens.
The Chinese government is set to donate 600,000 doses of the CoronaVac vaccines, 100,000 of which are intended for the members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). According to Roque, it will be up to the AFP how they are going to handle the vaccination.
"We will leave it to the AFP how they will proceed with their initial vaccination. But as the 500,000 is concerned, we already have the vaccination plan," he said.
No one was bribed
Roque assured the public that CoronaVac is safe and that no one in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was bribed so Sinovac can be given an emergency use authorization (EUA).
"Hindi minadali at hindi natin napilit na gumawa ng desisyon ang mga eksperto na ayaw nila (This was not done in haste and we did not force experts to make decisions they did not want to)," he said.
"So, tumagal po ang proseso, naantala nga ang pagdating ng Sinovac, so wala po talagang nagpabili sa proseso (The process took some time, the arrival of Sinovac vaccines was delayed so no one was bribed)," he added.
The Palace official said this should boost the confidence of the people on the COVID-19 vaccines.
"'Yan po ay basehan para tayo ay magkaroon ng kompyansa na ang mga eksperto talagang tinignan ng datos (This should be the basis for us to have confidence in the vaccine because the experts really looked into the data)," Roque said.