The country received an additional 1.5 million doses of vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from Chinese manufacturer Sinovac Biotech on Saturday morning, July 17.
The plane carrying the government-procured CoronaVac vaccines landed on Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City around 8 a.m. via Cebu Pacific flight 5J 671.
The arrival ceremony was witnessed by top officials of the Department of Health (DOH) led by Dr. Ariel Valencia, DOH director for supply chain management.
According to Valencia, the vaccines have yet to be distributed to the local government units (LGUs) since the latest delivery has no certificate of analysis during the arrival. The certificate of analysis proves that all the vaccines are of good quality and ready to be used.
While waiting for the issuance of the certificate, which may take at least one week, Valencia said the vaccines will be stored at the cold chain facility of PharmaServ Express in Marikina City.
The latest delivery raised the total vaccine supply to 26,288,110 doses.
A total of 14.5 million doses were composed of Sinovac jabs including the 13.5 million doses that were procured by the national government and one million doses that were donated by the China.
The national government bought a total of 25 million doses of Sinovac vaccine which means that there remains 11.5 million doses that will be delivered until the end of 2021.
At 4 p.m. Saturday, around 1.6 million doses of Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine will be transported in the country. These are donations by the United States government to the Philippines through the Covax facility.