The Philippines received on Thursday afternoon (Aug. 19) its highest single delivery of government-procured vaccines consisting of 3 million Sinovac doses.
Philippine Airlines Flight PR 359 which carried the shipment landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 before 6:00 p.m. The batch is part of the 26 million doses ordered by the national government.
“We are so happy that we were accommodated by the Sinovac Biotech Ltd. na talagang mabigyan tayo ng 3 million kasi kailangang-kailangan talaga natin sa mga probinsya,” vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. said in an interview.
Galvez said the vaccines will be allocated to all regions to increase the vaccination coverage of other areas to 40%, or close to the coverage of Metro Manila, to achieve herd immunity by December.
The official said the vaccines will be released following the conduct of inspection and the release of certificates of analysis (COA).
“‘Yung COA, mayroon na raw ‘yung iba. Kasi 3 million, so titingnan natin kung ano ‘yung mga batches ang mayroon nang COA,” he said.
He said the deal for the delivery of 26 million doses may be completed on Aug. 20 (Friday).
“We have an additional 3 million na ating prinocure, and we have an additional na 10 million for September, and another nine million for October,” he said.
The Philippines is expecting the delivery of 582,400 AstraZeneca vaccines procured by the private sector and Chinese government-donated Sinopharm doses within this week. (PTV News)/AG- bny
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