Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez has expressed confidence the Philippines will its cumulative 100 million anti-Covid vaccine doses by end of this month.
Half of the more than 1.8 million doses of Pfizer vaccines donated by the United States government through the COVAX Facility arrived Sunday afternoon. More than 14.2 million doses were delivered to the Philippines first week of this month with h average daily arrivals hitting 1.5 million doses.
Galvez welcomed the US delivery, accompanied by US Embassy in Manila Chargé d’Affaires Heather Variava in welcoming the 918,450 doses which arrived via Emirates Flight EK 332 at about 4 p.m.
Another 924,300 doses will arrive via the same flight and around the same time while the government-procured 272,610 doses are expected at about 9:20 p.m.
Variava reiterated the US government’s commitment to work with the Philippines in the vaccine rollout. As of October 8, more than 49 million doses have been administered and 23 million individuals are already fully vaccinated.
COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization, alongside the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The facility aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines and to guarantee equitable access for every country.