Another 1.5 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines arrive in the Philippines on Thursday, July 22.
The vaccine supply from China arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport through Flight 5J 671 of Cebu Pacific.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III welcomed the arrival of the Sinovac vaccines.
National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said 1 million more doses of the Sinovac vaccine would arrive on Friday.
NTF reported that the Philippines already secured 164 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine doses through procurement.
NTF chairperson Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and NTF Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said a total of 27,992,360 vaccine doses had been delivered out of the 164 million doses.
“We are now awaiting the delivery of 136.1 million additional doses. On track in our vaccination program implementation, we are looking forward to having a better Christmas this year,” Lorenzana said.
NTF said that out of the 27 million delivered doses, 13.2 million were brought by the national government, 2.2 million were purchased by the private sector, and local government units, 10.2 million doses were COVAX-donated, and 2.1 million doses came from bilateral donations.
1.5M Sinovac vaccines arrive in Philippines
Of the 164 million doses, 26 million were government-procured Sinovac doses, 40 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses, 13 million Moderna doses, and 10 million Sputnik V doses.
The private sector and LGUs have also brought 7 million doses of Moderna and 17 million doses of Astrazeneca vaccines.
Meanwhile, the COVAX facility committed 44 million doses, while around 2 million doses will come from bilateral donations.
As of July 20, the Philippines has administered 15,616,562 doses of anti-COVID 19 vaccines nationwide.
The NTF said around 10.5 million people have already received their first dose, while more than five million individuals have been fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ana Ong-Lim, a DOH Technical Advisory Group member and a pediatric infectious disease expert, said vaccines would decrease the possibility for a patient with COVID-19 to die or have severe and critical disease.
“Hindi naman ipinapangako ng bakuna na hindi tayo mahahawahan o makapanghawa so therefore nandoon pa rin dapat ang pag-iingat,” she said.
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