1.8M Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by US arrive in Manila

A total of 1,813,500 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine donated by the US government through the COVAX facility arrived in the country early Sunday.

This brought the total vaccine deliveries to the country to 77,410,640 doses as of Sunday, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.

On Saturday afternoon, 889,200 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived, also a donation of the US government through the COVAX facility.

“With the over 77-million vaccine doses we have received since February, we are moving closer to vaccinating half of our eligible population. This will be another major milestone in our vaccine rollout,” Galvez, also the Chief Implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said.

The vaccine czar said millions more vaccine doses — Pfizer, Moderna and Sinovac — are arriving within the month, and by the end of October, the country would have received a total of 100 million vaccine doses since February.

“And by the end of October, we project that the country would have received a total of 100 million vaccine doses (since February), which could fully inoculate about 50 million Filipinos. This brings us closer to our goal of achieving herd immunity or population protection for us to safely exit from this pandemic as soon as possible,” Galvez said.

The vaccine czar expressed gratitude to the World Health Organization (WHO), the COVAX facility, the US government and UNICEF for the vaccine donations.

“I would like to thank the World Health Organization, UNICEF, COVAX, the GAVI Alliance and the US Government for another donation. We highly appreciate your efforts for ensuring the delivery of these vaccines despite the limited global vaccine supply and logistical challenges you face. On behalf of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and from the Filipino people, we thank you for your act of compassion and generosity,” he said.

COVAX has committed to deliver more than 10 million doses of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines starting the third quarter of 2021. Most of these were donated by the US government. 

According to US Embassy Chargé d’affaires Heather Variava, more vaccine doses are expected to arrive this week.

“Over the course of the next couple of days, we will see 5.5 million more doses arrive in the Philippines, both here in Manila but also down in Cebu and Davao,” she said.

“The United States is so happy to be able to provide support not just to Metro Manila but to the greater Philippines,” the US Embassy official added.

A White House official on Friday said the US will send five shipments totalling 5,575,050 doses to the Philippines by next week.

Meanwhile, Galvez said the Pfizer vaccines that were delivered this weekend will be deployed to areas outside Metro Manila, such as Regions IV-A and III.

The next vaccine doses to be delivered will be allotted for Regions VII and XI.

Sinovac

Most of the vaccines delivered to the Philippines were made by Sinovac.

To date, the country has received 41.5 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said.

Of this total, 39.6 million doses were procured by the national government. 

One million doses were donated by the Chinese government, while 900,000 doses were procured by the City of Manila and the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc.

Galvez said the Sinovac doses "will be equitably distributed to all regions particularly ‘yung mga kokonti pa ang vaccinated (in areas where only a few are vaccinated)." —KG, GMA News