1.15 million AstraZeneca doses arrive in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 1,150,800 doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine landed in the Philippines on Friday onboard a China Airlines plane.

With this new shipment, the country's available doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine has reached 6,858,900.

These shots are part of the 17 million doses procured by around 500 private companies through a tripartite agreement with the national government and the British-Swedish drugmaker.

Initially, the private sector agreed to donate half of its vaccine supply to the national government, but presidential adviser of entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion told reporters that this would no longer be followed.

“Secretary [Carlito] Galvez has told us that there is no need to donate, we can now donate it directly to the different LGUs (local government units) that supported the private sector while our vaccines did not arrive,” Concepcion said, without specifying how many of the doses would be allocated to local governments.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, taken in two doses spaced eight to 12 weeks apart, is 63.09% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection.

The country is also set to receive Friday afternoon the first shipment of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine amounting to 1.6 million doses. Another 1.6 million doses are expected to arrive on Saturday.