MANILA, Philippines (Updated 4:45 p.m.) — The Philippines received Saturday over a million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Japanese government.
The plane carrying 1,065,600 AstraZeneca jabs landed past 12:30 p.m. at the Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
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National Task Force against COVID-19 adviser Ted Herbosa said the newly-delivered shots will be deployed to Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao.
Tokyo has donated at least 3 million vaccine doses to the Philippines.
A total of 1,546,200 million AstraZeneca jabs from the COVAX vaccine sharing facility also arrived in the country past 4 p.m.
“We need to reach that 1.5 million doses per day that we are targeting. With this donation, I think we should be able to do that to our countrymen,” Herbosa said.
According to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., the country is expecting to receive “at least 50 to 60 million” vaccine doses in the remaining two months of the year.
The government targets to complete the inoculation of more than 12.7 million minors aged 12 to 17 by the end of the year. — Gaea Katreena Cabico