(Eagle News) — The vaccine doses against COVID-19 that arrived in the country reached almost 86.5 million with the arrival of over 900,000 Pfizer doses donated by the United States on Sunday, Oct. 10, and over 1.3 million Moderna doses that arrived on Saturday, Oct. 9.
The 918,450 Pfizer doses shipment that arrived on Sunday is part of the 1.8 million total doses committed to the Philippines from the US government donation through COVAX Facility. T
Today, Monday, Oct. 11, the remaining doses consisting of 924,300 are also expected to arrive.
“We’re really proud to be part of this effort here in the Philippines to vaccinate the Filipino people including teenagers and children so we can get them back to school,” US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Heather Variava said during an interview at the NAIA Terminal 3.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. thanked the US government, COVAX, World Health Organization, and UNICEF for the latest Pfizer shipment.
“We are very thankful that our 100 million target will be achieved considering that we have faithful allies that really wanted to help us in this time of need,” said Galvez who is also NTF against COVID-19 Chief Implementer.
As of October 10, a total of 86,494,050 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to the country, of which 22,561,180 doses came from the COVAX facility.
-Galvez calls on LGU officials to set-aside politics in giving COVID jabs-
With the steady arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, Galvez assured that there are sufficient supplies for local governments throughout the country.
“Our collective mission here is for us to open and recover our economy and safely exit from the pandemic. I am calling on everyone to take the jab as soon as possible,” he said.
The vaccine czar also urged local officials to set aside politics and focus on the implementation of the vaccine program.
“We call on our local leaders, including our regional directors, officers in IATF to set aside political differences and focus on our approach to inoculate as many people as possible,” Galvez said.
UNICEF Procurement Services Specialist Bernardo Bersola, and Health Director Ariel Valencia were present to receive the Pfizer vaccines.
-Over 9.9 million Moderna doses already delivered-
The previous day, on Saturday, Oct. 9, the 1,363,300 Moderna jabs on board China Airlines flight CI 703 landed at Terminal 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 3:45 p.m.
The NTF against COVID-19 said that of the newly delivered shots, 885,700 were government-procured, while the remaining 477,600 were purchased by the private sector.
To date, more than 9.9 million doses of procured and donated Moderna vaccines have been delivered to the Philippines.
Raymond T. Azurin, senior vice president for corporate affairs of Zuellig Pharma Corp. attributed the continuous arrival of the Moderna vaccines to the strong partnership between the government and private sector.
On a daily average, the Philippines has been receiving at least 1.5 million vaccine doses. For the first week of October, the country has received more than 14 million doses, according to the NTF against COVID-19.
The national government aims to hit the 100 million mark in terms of total doses delivered by the end of the month, according to Galvez.
(Eagle News Service)
