Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the latest batch of Sinovac coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines that arrived in the country Monday, June 28, will be brought to areas where there is a surge in cases.
"We will bring this where there is a surge. We have surge in Region 6, Region 8, Caraga, Region 10, parts of Region 11, Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos), Region 9,"he said during the arrival of the Sinovac vaccines in Pasay City.
"Sec. (Carlito) Galvez will give you a more detailed places for the distribution of these additional one million Sinovac vaccines but we're still awaiting for the Certificate of Analysis (COA)," added Duque.
While waiting for the certificate of analysis, he said, the Sinovac vaccines will be distributed to the regional hubs.
Duque also said that the priority groups will be the same.
"Same priority groups, we have the A1(frontline healthcare workers), A2 elderly, A3 those individuals with comorbids, A4 economic frontliners, and of course A5 (indigent population)," he said.
According to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, the latest batch brings to 6.5 million the number of CoronaVac doses delivered to the country this June.
To date, Sinovac has shipped 12 million doses of its vaccines to the Philippines since February.
Meanwhile, the DOH said they have COA scheduled to be issued by the manufacturers from today until the 30th of June.
The Health department said this is for the June 24 deliveries of Sinovac.
The DOH issued the statement after Taguig temporarily suspended the vaccination for the first and second dose of Sinovac.
Taguig said the DOH has yet to authorize the use of the vaccines they currently have in their cold chain facility.
The DOH said Taguig will resume vaccination as soon as COA has been issued.