The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an emergency use authorization to the Department of Health (DOH) to accept the donations of Sinopharm vaccine.
"Today, we already granted an emergency use authorization to DOH to accept the donations of Sinopharm," FDA Director General Eric Domingo said in a meeting with President Duterte, Monday, June 7.
He said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III wrote the FDA last May 20 saying they were willing to accept donations for Sinopharm coming from China.
Last April, Domingo said, the government may apply an EUA on behalf of Sinopharm being an implementer of the vaccination program.
"But even if it is the DOH applying, they still have to submit proof and documents showing the safety, efficacy, and quality of the product," he said that time.
In the past, FDA also granted an EUA to the Sputnik V vaccine of Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute for their COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac to mention a few.
Meanwhile, Duque during the meeting also gave an update on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country.
He said of the 6,539 new cases, 1,049 came from Region 4A followed by the National Capital Region with 809, and Region 6 with 692.
Duque said 3,989 came from other regions.
As of June 7, there were a total of 1,276,004 COVID-19 cases in the country.