Over 1M Pfizer doses land in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Over one million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine which were procured by the national government through a loan from the Asian Development Bank arrived Friday night in the Philippines.

Of the 1,016,730 doses of the vaccine that landed in the country, 813,150 doses would go to Metro Manila, 101,790 doses would go to Cebu and another 101,790 doses would go to Davao.

A total of around 25.4 million Pfizer shots have been delivered to the country since the first batch arrived in May.

All in all, around 94.7 million doses of various vaccines have arrived in the country, with over 54.4 million of these having been administered.

"We are very thankful that almost every day, we are receiving vaccines and majority of which are coming from the US," vaccine czar Carlito Galvez told reporters at the arrival of the fresh shipment of jabs.

"I think it’s important that the Philippines is able to get the vaccines from a variety of sources whether it be through COVAX or through purchase from American pharmaceutical companies," said Edward Vincent O’Bryan, the US Embassy’s political counselor.

The Philippines began its vaccination program in March, with a goal of getting the shots into the arms of up to 77 million individuals this year. 

Philstar.com's independent monitoring shows that 23.02% of Filipinos have been fully vaccinated, while 26.91% have received the first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.