Manila, January 28: The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised the emergency use of the vaccine against the coronavirus developed by the AstraZeneca company, media reported on Thursday. The authorisation was issued three weeks after the company had submitted the application, the ABS-CBN broadcaster reported.

The AstraZeneca vaccine became the second one authorised for emergency use in the Philippines following the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Last week, Russian Ambassador to Manila Marat Pavlov held talks with Philippine Secretary of Health Francisco Duque Duque on the potential use of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 in the Philippines. AstraZeneca-Oxford Vaccine Not Ready for Approval, Says European Watchdog.

The Russian diplomat expressed Moscow's readiness to start deliveries of the vaccine to the Southeast Asian country immediately after getting the national regulator's permit to use it.

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