MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines received over 180,000 additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech on Thursday evening.
The shipment containing 188,370 was the latest donation from the COVAX facility.
This raised the country’s total vaccine doses to over 52 million COVID-19 jabs.
Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, head of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 sub-task force on current operations, said the additional jabs will be deployed to areas that have yet to receive Pfizer shots.
“[This is to] prepare and train areas that haven’t received Pfizer doses yet,” he said in Filipino.
Vaccination updates
- More than 34 million doses have been administered nationwide, of which around 19.9 million were given as first dose, since vaccination efforts began in March.
- Over 14 million people have completed vaccination against COVID-19.
- Officials have started talks with four manufacturers that produce COVID-19 booster shots. The government has allocated P45 million for the procurement of extra doses. The World Health Organization has yet to recommend the use of booster shots, while vaccine experts in the Philippines are currently assessing the feasibility of administering them. — Gaea Katreena Cabico