Around two million Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses procured by the government were delivered on Thursday evening (Aug.12), raising the total vaccines in the country to nearly 41.5 million.
The airplane carrying the vaccine shipment arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 past 7:00 p.m. and was witnessed by National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.
Galvez said in an interview that the vaccines will be allocated nationwide. One million doses will be given to National Capital Region (NCR) plus 8 areas. The remaining half will be handed over to other provinces.
“May darating tayo na halos magkasabay naman, ‘yung four million na Sinovac at one million na Sinopharm… ‘Yung two million [na Sinovac], ibibigay natin sa different provinces, at ‘yung two million is sa NCR, plus mga areas na may surge,” Galvez said.
More than 800,000 Pfizer doses were delivered to the country on Aug. 11. This is the second biggest shipment of the said brand procured by the national government.
Galvez said these will be given to Metro Manila and other highly urbanized areas.
Around 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines and 15,000 Sputnik V Component 2 are expected to be delivered on Aug. 13.
The vaccine czar also explained that the delay in the delivery of the Sputnik V second component is due to “a challenge on the production,” considering that the manufacturer is supplying to around 50 countries. – Report from Ryan Lesigues/AG-bny
Below is the scheduled arrival of vaccines for this month:
