The COVID-19 vaccination program rolled out on March 1, upon the arrival of 600,000 Sinovac in the country. Front liners, senior citizens, and uniformed personnel lead the priority list. Government officials are set to get vaccinated as well.

According to a statement on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website, “through Executive Order No. 121 s. 2020, vaccines under development can be granted an EUA where there is no adequate, approved and available alternative to a vaccine for preventing COVID-19 during this present public health emergency. The granting of the EUA is not a marketing authorization or a Certificate of Product Registration, hence, this cannot be used to market the vaccine commercially.”

On March 4, the country received 487,200 doses of AztraZeneca vaccines. It was announced on February 28 that the expected brand of vaccines will be delayed for a week.

Vaccines approved for Emergency Use by the Philippine Food and Drug administration are Sinovac, AztraZeneca, and Pfizer-BioNTech. Currently, Sinopharm, a China-state owned company, sent an application for emergency use in the Philippines but, to date, results have yet to be released.

The vaccines set to arrive in the country during the first quarter of the year have different efficacy rates. AztraZeneca’s efficacy rate is around 76%, Pfizer-BioNTech is at 95% efficacy rate while Sinovac is at 50.4%