President Rodrigo Duterte will personally welcome the arrival of 1 million doses of Coronavac Vaccine that was purchased by the Philippine Government from the Chinees pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech today.

“You asked, where are the purchased vaccines? None. We have not purchased vaccines as of yet,” Pres. Duterte said.

President Duterte said to the public that do not expect the shipment to arrive soon, except for the 1 million Sinovac doses that were bought by the government, which are due today.

The Philippines so far manage to receive a total of 1,525,600 doses, which health officials say is still not enough to vaccinate the prioritized 1.7 million health workers.

The government is hoping to reach its goal to vaccinate 70 million Filipinos before the year ends.

Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez said that the government’s goal is to vaccinate around 500,000 to 1,000,000 Filipinos weekly between April and May.

“The country is expecting a steady supply of COVID-19 vaccines by the third and fourth quarters of this year,” Galvez said.

Philippines has already signed supply agreements with the following pharmaceutical company Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Novavax.

“The supply agreement with Johnson & Johnson is expected to be signed this week, while negotiations with Gamaleya and Pfizer are still ongoing,” Galvez added in his statement.