961,000 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses arrive in the Philippines

A total of 961,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Philippines on Saturday.

According to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, the vaccines landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 at 4 p.m.

The NTF said 712,800 doses were procured by the Philippine government while 248,200 doses were procured by the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) from the United States.

“We have started to distribute this vaccine to the other regions outside the NCR. So small portions still go to NCR, ‘yung mga second doses ng Moderna nila,” NTF special adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa said.

“Majority is going to Region III and Region IV-A. This one will also go to Visayas, Cebu, and to Mindanao as well,” he added.

Almost 200,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine are expected to arrive later.

Meanwhile, the country reported 23,134 new COVID-19 cases.

This brought the nationwide tally to 2,347,550, of which 184,088 were active, 2,126,879 had recovered, and 36,583 succumbed to the illness. — DVM, GMA News