President Rodrigo Duterte has allowed the emergency approval of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine to be given by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Duterte signed an executive order allowing the FDA to give the emergency approval for COVID-19 vaccines.

This means that the vaccines approved from different countries can be used in the Philippines after 21 days and not the usual 6-month period.

Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez said that China’s Sinovac and Russia’s Sputnik V are among the first two coronavirus vaccines which will undergo clinical trials starting January 2021.

“The Sinovac and also the Gamaleya will undergo clinical trials here this coming either December or first week of January,” Galvez said in a media forum.

The country’s vaccine panel has given the green light for the clinical trial of Chinese Sinovac in October.