The Food and Drug Administration has granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Chinese firm Sinopharm.
FDA director general Dr. Eric Domingo said the agency’s experts had reviewed the Sinopharm’s application and approved it on Monday.
Domingo said the World Health Organization had already approved Sinopharm’s application for emergency use listing.
In other developments, the Philippines will receive about 30 to 40 million COVID-19 vaccine doses between this month and August, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said on Monday, as the country’s first batch of essential workers got vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
The Philippine government is also aiming to breach the 6-million mark in its COVID-19 vaccination program this week, Galvez said.
More than 1.5 million individuals have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of June 6, three months since the launch of its vaccination rollout, the Department of Health said Monday.
The DOH also said the stability of the COVID-19 vaccine supply will be determined by July to assess when the vaccination for individuals under B category will start.
Police officers can avail of COVID-19 vaccines in local government units where they are deployed, Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said on Monday.
Meanwhile, the third phase of clinical trials of the oral antiviral drug molnupiravir, as a possible treatment for the coronavirus disease, has started at the Lung Center of the Philippines.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) also said that Overseas Filipino workers bound for Singapore are no longer required to get inoculated against COVID-19 before they are allowed into the city-state.
