MANILA, Philippines (AP) – The Philippines received their first batch of COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, one of the last in Southeast Asia to secure the critical doses despite the second highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the severe affected region.
A Chinese military transport plane with 600,000 doses of vaccine donated by China arrived at an air base in the capital. President Rodrigo Duterte and senior cabinet officials expressed their relief and thanked Beijing for the vaccine from China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd. during a television ceremony.
“COVID-19 vaccines must be treated as a global public good and made available to everyone, both rich and poor,” said Duterte, warning that “no one is safe until everyone is safe.”
Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, said China has exported vaccines to 27 countries despite its own domestic needs, adding that “no winter lasts forever” as China and other countries help each other in solidarity when the crisis hits.
Initially, the vaccinations of health workers and top officials led by the health secretary were scheduled for Monday at six hospitals in Metropolitan Manila.
Aside from the donated Sinovac vaccine, the government has separately ordered 25 million doses from the China-based company. Health Minister Francisco Duque III said the delivery of an initial 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, initially scheduled for Monday, would be delayed by a week due to delivery problems.
Initial deliveries are a tiny fraction of at least 148 million doses that the government has negotiated to assure Western and Asian companies to vaccinate about 70 million Filipinos for free in a large-scale campaign. Most of the vaccine shipments are expected to arrive later this year.
The Philippines has reported more than 576,000 infections, including 12,318 deaths, the second highest number in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Lockups and quarantine restrictions have plunged Manila’s economy into one of the worst recessions in the region, leading to unemployment and hunger.
Duterte’s government has been criticized for lagging behind most other Southeast Asian countries in securing the vaccines, including many smaller and poorer ones such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
The hard-hitting Duterte has said that wealthy Western countries have cornered enormous doses for their citizens, forcing poorer countries to crowd out the rest. In a sign of desperation, the president said last December that he would lift a major security pact with the United States that would allow large numbers of US troops to conduct war exercises in the Philippines if Washington does not receive at least 20 million doses of Covid19 vaccine.
“No vaccine, don’t stay here,” Duterte said then.
Delivery of the Chinese vaccine was delayed due to the lack of an emergency use permit from Manila’s Food and Drug Administration. Sinovac was cleared last Monday. Western pharmaceutical companies also wanted the Philippine government to guarantee that it would take responsibility for lawsuits and claims for redress arising from possible adverse side effects from the vaccine, officials said.
Delivery issues aside, there were concerns about the vaccine’s safety, largely due to a fear of dengue vaccine that prompted the Duterte administration to stop a massive immunization push in 2017.
Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report.