President Rodrigo Duterte will witness the arrival of the donated COVID-19 vaccine from China on Sunday, February 28, as the rollout for the immunization program will take place on the following day, Malacanang said on Friday.

"Yes to all," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a text message when asked if Duterte will see for himself the unloading of first batch of COVID-19 vaccine in the country.

The 600,000 doses of vaccine produced by Sinovac are expected to arrive at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

Roque said other Cabinet officials will also be present.

With the arrival of the Sinovac vaccine, he said the government will start the inoculation program on Monday among healthcare workers at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila.

In a statement, Roque said the Palace welcomes the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to use Sinovac for healthcare workers.

"As we have said in many occasions, healthcare workers are the most critical frontliners in our fight against COVID-19 and they remain at the top of our priority list for vaccination," he said.

"The IATF’s approval of the recommendation of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group and the Department of Health’s Technical Advisory Group is an assurance that the use of Sinovac is safe and beneficial to our healthcare workers," Roque added.

When the local Food and Drug Administration approved the emergency use authorization for Sinovac early this week, it advised that the Chinese vaccine could be used only by 18 to 59-year-old healthy individuals and it was not advisable for healthcare workers due to low efficacy rate of 50.4 percent.

But Sinovac and other government officials have said using the Chinese vaccine could still prevent serious COVID-19 infection and even deaths.

With the arrival on February 28 of the Sinovac vaccine, Roque said, "we are confident that many of our healthcare workers would get themselves inoculated to boost public confidence in our mass vaccination program against the coronavirus."

Of the 600,000 donated Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses, 100,000 will go to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Celerina Monte/DMS