Malacañang said that since the CoronaVac vaccines of Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac cannot be given to senior citizens and medical frontliners for now, the first to receive the shots will be the military and economic frontliners.
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 vaccine, prompting the delivery of the initial 600,000 doses donated by the Chinese government.
However, the FDA said the shots can only be given to healthy individuals aged 18 to 59 years old.
In his Monday presser, Roque said because of this condition, the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) that crafted the priority list would have to meet and amend the order of prioritization.
"Dahil ang ating first priority ay healthcare workers, pagkatapos mga seniors at hindi sila pupwede, baka mauna na ang mga tinatawag nating economic frontliners (Because our first priority are the healthcare workers and the seniors, and since the vaccine cannot be given to them, maybe the economic frontline would have to go first)," he said.
Economic frontliners are those working on industries or businesses that did not close down during the period of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
According to Roque, the Chinese government just needed three days from February 22, the day the EUA was issued, to work on delivering the 600,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccines. Of the 600,000 doses, 100,000 are for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
"Asahan po natin na wala na pong matagal na delay para magsimula ang ating bakuna (Expect that there will be no long delay for our vaccination program to start)," he said.
"Pasensya na po kayo naantala ng mga ilang araw lang naman. Ako naman po sa mula't mula ay nanindigan na ang unang gagamitin natin ay ang Sinovac o ang Chinese vaccine (I apologize that we got delayed for just a few days. But I said from the very start that the first vaccines we will use are the Chinese ones)," he added.
The CoronaVac shots donated by the Chinese government were originally "set in stone" to arrive in the country on February 23. However, China preferred to have the EUA first before they started delivering the vaccines.