By Enrico Dela Cruz
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines received its initial batch of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, in a consignment donated by China, the day before the inoculation campaign began, but President Rodrigo Duterte will not be among the first to be vaccinated.
Duterte attended a ceremony to mark the arrival of the initial 600,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac, which were delivered by a Chinese military aircraft before another 25 million doses of CoronaVac that will be delivered in batches this year.
But Duterte, who will turn 77 next month, said at a news conference that, although he wants to be vaccinated, his doctor wants a different Chinese brand of vaccine for him.
His comment emphasizes the lack of support from Filipino faces when launching their inoculation campaign. An opinion poll showed that less than a third of Filipinos want to be vaccinated due to perceptions about possible side effects.
The country’s vaccination campaign targets health professionals, police and the military initially. It also negotiated supply agreements with other manufacturers, aiming to inoculate 70 million people, or two-thirds of the population.
The Philippines is the last country in Southeast Asia to receive initial supplies of vaccines, fueling concerns about the prospects for recovery for a consumer-oriented economy that suffered its worst drop recorded last year, hit by long blocks of coronavirus.
“What you see now are donated vaccines. The problem is that everyone is running to guarantee supplies,” Duterte said at a news conference.
“Until there is a residual supply, we just have to wait.”
Duterte promised to further reduce restrictions to support economic recovery, but only when more vaccines are available.
(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by William Mallard, Raissa Kasolowsky and David Goodman)