Philippines approves emergency use of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for children

MANILA, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the emergency use authorization for China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for children, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said on Monday.

Duque said the government would soon administer the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, or the inactivated CoronaVac vaccine, to children aged six and above. "We are just looking at the operational details to implement this. But it will not take long," Duque added.

CoronaVac is the second COVID-19 vaccine allowed to be administered to children in the Philippines. The FDA earlier granted emergency use of Pfizer vaccine for children.

The Sinovac vaccine is also the first vaccine delivered in Manila as China donated the first batch on Feb. 28 last year, allowing the country to kick off its vaccination drive the very next day.

The Philippines has administered over 138 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of March 10. More than 64 million people have been fully vaccinated.

The Philippines now has more than 3.67 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 57,610 deaths.