A total of 1,813,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in the Philippines via National Airlines flight N8523 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1, Bay 9 at around 4:00 a.m. on Sunday (Oct. 3).
Meanwhile, 889,200 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived on Saturday (Oct. 2). Both shipments were donations of the U.S. government through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility.
The shipment on Sunday was welcomed by vaccine czar and National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 chief implementer Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Heather Variava, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Health Director Michelle Lang-Alli.
According to Galvez, a portion of the recent shipment of Pfizer vaccines will be allotted for those in the 12- to 17-year-old age group.
“We will still focus on inoculating our priority groups, A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidity), partly itong mga dumadating na ito will be given also to our children this coming October 15,” Galvez said.
“We have already coordinated with the different governors that they have to increase their [vaccination] capacity and we are very thankful that their capacity has now increased,” he added.
Aside from the Pfizer vaccines, the U.S. government has also donated P1.9 million worth of medical supplies, including an ultra-cold freezer, to the Philippine government.
-Report from Rod Pineda Lagusad/PG – jlo
