UK donates 415,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Philippines

The Philippines is set to receive 415,00 doses of COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca as donation from the United Kingdom.

In a statement, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the AstraZeneca vaccines are part of the first batch of 100 million doses that they will deliver in poor countries worldwide.

"We’re doing this to help the most vulnerable, but also because we know we won’t be safe until everyone is safe," he wrote in a statement posted by British Embassy Manila.

According to the British embassy, the nine million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including the donation to the Philippines, will be delivered this week.

"The vaccines are expected to start leaving the UK this week, with the Philippines among the countries set to receive doses," read the statement.

Experts had said two doses of AstraZeneca  are highly effective against the more transmissible Delta variant, which has 119 cases in the Philippines.

The Philippines has so far secured a total of 164 million vaccine doses from different vaccine manufacturers  for this year through purchases as well as donations from the COVAX facility and other donor countries. -- Consuelo Marquez/BAP, GMA News