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MANILA: No Covid-19 vaccine has been approved yet anywhere in the world, the Philippine Council for Health Research Development (PCHRD) said on Monday after some legislators allegedly already received shots.

Dost PCHRD executive director Jaime Montoya pointed out that the claim is improbable.

On Saturday, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Senator Panfilo Lacson and House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez had been vaccinated against Covid-19 similar to Pfizer’s product.

However, Lacson on Sunday hinted that the claim might only be a joke.

Romualdez has yet to comment on Sotto’s remark.

Montoya said a Covid-19 vaccine product should be approved first in the country of its manufacturer before it can apply for registration in other countries.

Montoya clarified that the approval for emergency use of vaccines is only effective in the country where it is manufactured.

In an emergency situation like the pandemic, he said the authorisation allows the use of vaccines on selected people such as the military, as long as the subjects in trials have already undergone at least two months of follow-up.

Earlier this month, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Covid-19 vaccination in the country could begin by May 2021 if everything will go as planned.