Philippines Likely To Receive Russian, Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines In Early 2021 - Reports

Philippines Likely to Receive Russian, Chinese COVID-19 Vaccines in Early 2021 - Reports

The Philippines might secure the first doses of China's Sinovac and Russia's Sputnik V vaccines against COVID-19 at the beginning of the year, the CNN Philippines news network reported on Wednesday, citing Carlito Galvez Jr, the chief implementer of the Philippines' COVID-19 National Task Force

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2020) The Philippines might secure the first doses of China's Sinovac and Russia's Sputnik V vaccines against COVID-19 at the beginning of the year, the CNN Philippines news network reported on Wednesday, citing Carlito Galvez Jr, the chief implementer of the Philippines' COVID-19 National Task Force.

Galvez noted that the Sputnik V vaccine will undergo clinical trials in the Philippines in December or early January, along with Sinovac. The vaccine czar specified that the Philippines would receive the Sinovac vaccine in 60-90 days if the deal with Beijing would be reached this month.

"We can foresee that there is the greater, better scenario that we can get the vaccine in the first quarter, maybe March or late February," Galvez said on Wednesday during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay Forum, as quoted by the news outlet.

He added that the government expected to complete negotiations with the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, developing the Sputnik V, which had said it would deliver vaccine doses to the Philippines in January if a deal is reached.

Apart from the Russian and Chinese vaccine candidates, the Philippines is also due to purchase vaccines from the US' Pfizer and the UK's AstraZeneca to inoculate 60 million citizens.

A deal with AstraZeneca to secure 2.6 million doses of the vaccine was signed last week. However, it will be delivered to the Philippines in May.