The hard-hit Czech Republic has requested a delivery of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine in response to the delayed arrival of EU-procured jabs and will also consider Chinese inoculations, the president said Sunday.

The EU member tops the world in new infections per 100,000 people over the last 14 days and is second only to neighbouring Slovakia in deaths, according to an AFP tally.

The vaccination rollout is slower than expected with only 650,000 jabs administered since December in the country of 10.7 million people, which Czech politicians blame on slow procurement by the EU.

"After consulting the prime minister, I have sent a letter to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, asking him for a supply of the Sputnik vaccine," President Milos Zeman said on TV Prima.

"Information from the Russian embassy suggests it could arrive in the next few days," said the pro-Russian, pro-Chinese leader.

He said he would not mind if the country used the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine either as "vaccines have no ideology".

Neither Sputnik V nor Sinopharm have been approved by the European Union regulator EMA, unlike the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines currently used in the Czech Republic.

But Zeman and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said they would not wait for the EMA to give the green light.

"All we need is a stamp from the (Czech) State Office for Drug Control," said Babis, who visited Hungary and Serbia earlier this month to learn about the two vaccines.

"Sixty-five countries in the world want the Russian vaccine, including six EU countries, so why say, 'Jesus, it's terrible'?" said Babis.

"Believe me when I say that EU member states will also be asking for Sputnik in a few months," added the billionaire populist, who -- like Zeman -- has already received both jabs of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Hungary PM Orban receives Chinese virus jab
Budapest (AFP) Feb 28, 2021 - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was vaccinated with a Chinese-made jab days after Hungary became the first EU member to use the vaccine, which has not been approved by EU regulators.

"I am vaccinated," said a post on Orban's official Facebook page alongside photographs and a video showing him receiving a jab from a medical assistant holding a Sinopharm box.

Neither Sinopharm nor Russia's Sputnik V jab, which Budapest also started rolling out this month in another EU first, are approved by the bloc's European Medicines Agency (EMA).

But Orban, who has blamed the EU for failing to deliver vaccines fast enough, has urged citizens to put aside concerns about the Chinese vaccine while pro-government media have also promoted its benefits.

President Janos Ader also received a Sinopharm shot Friday a day after the country's chief surgeon announced the start of mass inoculations with the vaccine.

The first batch of 550,000 Sinopharm jabs from China arrived in Hungary earlier this month accompanied by fanfare in public media.

Budapest expects to get a further one million doses in March and April in total, with 3.5 million more doses arriving in May.

So far, almost half a million Hungarians have received at least one vaccine dose, mostly Pfizer shots, but officials say that the pace of inoculations will double with the newly procured Chinese jabs.

In surveys of preferences among the five vaccines now used in Hungary, Sinopharm ranks last behind three western-developed vaccines -- Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca -- as well as Sputnik V.

The inoculation drive comes as an extension of a partial lockdown in place from November until March 15 was announced Thursday following a steep rise in new infection cases.

"Without the Chinese and Russian vaccines we would be in big trouble," Orban said Friday.

Orban's critics have accused the 57-year-old premier of pressuring health authorities to approve non-EU vaccines to win favour from China and Russia.

A government decree last month drastically loosened approval criteria of vaccines worldwide.

A leading doctors association said it could not recommend the Chinese or Russian drugs to colleagues "in good conscience" due to inadequate documentation.

Philippines receives first Covid-19 vaccines from China
Manila (AFP) Feb 28, 2021 - The Philippines received 600,000 vaccine doses from China Sunday, kickstarting the country's inoculation drive despite concerns over the Sinovac jab's effectiveness.

Top government officials and health workers will be the first on Monday to receive the Chinese-made vaccine -- called CoronaVac -- just days after the drug regulator approved it for emergency use.

President Rodrigo Duterte, whose government has been under fire over delays in procuring vaccines, oversaw the delivery of the doses at a military air base.

Around 525,000 doses of AstraZeneca jab, distributed as part of the global Covax global inoculation programme, were also supposed to arrive on Monday, but Health Secretary Francisco Duque later said the shipment will be delayed for a week due to global supply problems.

The regulator did not recommend CoronaVac for healthcare workers due to its comparatively low efficacy.

An advisory group to the Philippine government allowed it to be offered to those willing to take it, but many nurses and doctors are reluctant and have opted to wait for other vaccines.

In the Philippine General Hospital, one of the country's main facilities treating Covid-19 patients, only 10 percent of staff were willing to be inoculated with the Chinese-made vaccine, spokesman Jonas Del Rosario told AFP.

It was far from the 94 percent who registered to take the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, said Del Rosario, who himself opted not to take the CoronaVac shot.

The hesitancy is not new in the Southeast Asian nation, which has struggled with vaccine programmes in recent years.

The Philippines was the first country in 2016 to deploy the dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, but a botched rollout led to unfounded claims that several dozen children had died from the jab.

Recent surveys have shown vaccine confidence remains low, with almost half of the population reportedly unwilling to be inoculated against the coronavirus.

To boost trust, several top officials -- including the health minister -- are expected to receive the CoronaVac jab.

President Duterte, who has defended Chinese-made vaccines, suggested he will be inoculated in public, having previously said he would receive it in private.

But the 75-year-old leader's doctors are still deciding which vaccine to use for him.

The rollout came as the number of daily new infections in the Philippines hit a four-month high. More than 570,000 cases have been confirmed, including over 12,000 deaths.

Aside from hospital workers, the military is set to receive 100,000 Sinovac doses.

Members of the Philippines armed forces are required to get vaccinated and those who refuse could be disciplined.

The government is in talks with seven vaccine makers, including Sinovac, in the hope of securing enough doses to inoculate 70 million people -- about 60 percent of the population -- this year.

But the bulk of the supply is not expected to start arriving until the summer.

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