Saying it was "cast in stone," Malacanang announced on Thursday that China's Sinovac Biotech's vaccine against coronavirus will arrive in the Philippines on February 23.

In a televised press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said China will be sending 600,000 Sinovac vaccine doses and of these, 100,000 doses will be donated to the Department of National Defense to be inoculated to the soldiers.

"The arrival of the Sinovac vaccine from China has been cast in stone - this will be on February 23," Roque said.

He made the statement as the Philippines has not received yet final word from COVAX Facility as to the exact date of the arrival of the vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

"The 600,000 (doses) of Sinovac (vaccine) will arrive on February 23, but 100,000 (doses) are China's donation to the soldiers of the Department of National Defense," Roque added.

However, the Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve the emergency use authorization of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines. The FDA has only so far granted EUA to Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Asked what will happen with the Sinovac vaccine doses once they arrive in the country and there is no FDA EUA approval yet, Roque said, "There is already a precedent for that, in Indonesia, Sinovac arrived a month before the EUA was issued in Indonesia. So, it will be stored until such time that it is approved."

But in case the EUA is not granted, the official said the Sinovac vaccine will be sent back to China.

The government earlier said that it has secured 25 million doses of Sinovac vaccine on top of the 500,000 doses that China promised to donate to the Philippines. Celerina Monte/DMS