Malacañang on Wednesday assured that there would be a continuous arrival of more Sinovac-made vaccine doses for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) this month.

Also, the Philippines is hopeful that the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca vaccines, which were supposed to arrive last Monday (March 1), would not be delayed anew.

On Monday, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said 1 million more doses of Covid-19 vaccines developed by China’s Sinovac will arrive this March under a P700-million purchase deal.

This is expected to boost the country’s initial stock of 600,000 doses of the same brand donated by Beijing.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque expressed optimism that the Sinovac-made vaccines will arrive as scheduled.

“The arrival is continuous because we expect 1 million from Sinovac, this is what we’re going to purchase,” he said in a radio interview in Filipino.

“We expect to have another 500,000 plus vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility which is scheduled to arrive this March,” he said in Filipino.

The country was supposed to receive some 525,600 doses AstraZeneca vaccines under COVAX Facility, a World Health Organization (WHO)-led mechanism to ensure fair vaccine access, especially for low to middle-income countries.

“So I think there won’t be any more delays and in April that’s when the bulk of the vaccine doses we purchased will come in,” he said.

Galvez earlier said there is no definite date yet for arrival of AstraZeneca vaccines due to global shortage of vaccines.

Meanwhile, Roque expressed confidence that the country’s front line medical workers would finish their vaccination as scheduled so that the rest of the groups in the government’s priority list could follow.

“The government is confident that this will be continuous and finish vaccinating our 3.4 million health workers. After them, I hope we have enough for senior citizens because they are the second priority in our vaccination,” he added.