Filipinos have become more receptive in getting the COVID-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinovac Biotech after it was approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO), an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said.

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that Sinovac vaccine was able to prove its effectiveness against COVID-19 after it passed the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO).

“For Sinovac, ito naman pong WHO EUL (emergency use listing) nung lumabas po iyan, of course nakita po natin na mas naging receptive ang ating mga kababayan sa bakunang ito at sa tingin ko, nawala yung agam-agam dahil napatunayan ng bakunang ito na ito ay kayang pumasa sa standards ng WHO (For Sinovac, when the WHO EUL came out, of course we saw that our countrymen became more receptive to this vaccine and I think, the doubt disappeared because this vaccine proved that it can pass the WHO standards),” said Vergeire.

“That alone proves that this vaccine will be effective and it’s going to provide that protection to our citizens. Pag tiningnan po natin yung pangaraw-araw natin na nababakunahan, pataas na po ng pataas ito pong Sinovac na recipients natin for vaccination (When we look at our daily vaccinations, the number of Sinovac recipients increases),” she added.

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The total number of Sinovac vaccines that already arrived in the Philippines was about 5.5 million, wherein one million was donated by the Chinese government while the rest was procured by the Philippine government.

Another one million Sinovac vaccines are expected to arrive in the Philippines on Sunday, June 6.

The WHO has validated the Sinovac vaccine for emergency use last June 1.

“Vaccine efficacy results showed that the vaccine prevented symptomatic disease in 51 percent of those vaccinated and prevented severe COVID-19 and hospitalization in 100 percent of the studied population,” the WHO said.

“The Sinovac-CoronaVac product is an inactivated vaccine. Its easy storage requirements make it very manageable and particularly suitable for low-resource settings,” it added.

Aside from Sinovac, the WHO has already listed the Pfizer/BioNTech, Astrazeneca, Serum Institute of India, Janssen, Moderna,and Sinopharm vaccines for emergency use.