500,000 CoronaVac doses arrive in PH

Around 500,000 doses of CoronaVac, manufactured by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd., arrived in the Philippines on Thursday, May 20, 2021.

This latest shipment brings the country's total CoronaVac doses to 5.5 million.

Future deliveries include approximately 4.5 million CoronaVac doses next month and 10 million doses in the following quarter.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte has approved expanding the vaccination program to include economic frontliners and indigent individuals.

Approximately 12.8 million people have been identified as economic frontliners, and about 16 million are classified as poor.

Economic frontliners will receive vaccines purchased by the government, while indigent citizens will be inoculated through a global initiative.

As of May 17, over 3.1 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered in the country.

The Philippines is also expecting to receive about 2.2 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine this month through a global access program.