President Duterte urged Filipinos to get vaccinated, assuring the public that the vaccines certified by the Food and Drug Administration for immunization against COVID-19 are safe and effective.
Duterte made the statement following the arrival of 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX Facility on Thursday, March 4.
In his speech during the arrival of the British-Swedish vaccine doses, Duterte appealed to the public to immediately get vaccinated immediately when their turn comes. He said that the country's health authorities are actively participating in continuous studies on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
"Our Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the required Emergency Use Authorization for AstraZeneca vaccine last , making it eligible for distribution and use in the country," he said.
"Our health authorities are also actively collaborating with their international counterparts in conducting continuous studies on vaccine safety and efficacy," he added.
According to the President, the fresh vaccines will augment the country's vaccination program that had a "successful" rollout on March 1.
"These vaccines, manufactured by the AstraZeneca in partnership with Oxford University, will further boost our ongoing national vaccination program," Duterte said.
"It also comes a few days after the arrival of the donated vaccines from China and our highly successful vaccination rollout in various COVID-19 referral hospitals in the country," he added.
The Philippines received a donation of 600,000 CoronaVac shots from the Chinese government on February 28. These were immediately given to healthcare workers the following day despite CoronaVac, made by Chinese drugmaker Sinovac, not being recommended for health workers.
According to Malacañang, medical frontliners who passed on the Sinovac vaccine are entitled to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine without losing their priority status.