Philippines receives more AstraZeneca, Pfizer doses vs. COVID-19

A total of 698,600 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Philippines on Friday morning, following a fresh delivery of Pfizer vaccine doses on Thursday night.

The new supply of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine doses landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.

According to the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, these doses were procured by the private sector.

On Thursday night, a total of 1,014,390 doses of the Pfizer doses arrived in the Philippines.

The NTF said the vaccines landed at NAIA Terminal 3 at 9:30 p.m.

The vaccines, procured by the government through the Asia Development Bank, were welcomed by vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and US Embassy Chargé d'Affaires Heather Variava, among others.

According to the task force, 100,620 doses were allocated to Cebu, 813,150 doses to Manila, and 100,620 doses to Davao.

"We have vaccinated more than 10 million children in the United States with the Pfizer vaccine... so it's a very safe and effective vaccine for children and we're seeing that now in the Philippines," Variava said.

Galvez expressed gratitude to the United States government.

"For now we have more than 4,000 children vaccinated and we have reported very minor adverse events... most of these Pfizer that will be delivered today and the next days, most of them will be given to different cities in the country," he said.

The Philippines also welcomed 400,000 Sputnik doses on Thursday evening.

As of latest count, the Philippines has administered 53,838,248 vaccine doses against COVID-19. From this number, 28,961,359 target individuals have received first doses while 24,876,889 have received complete doses.

The government said the country is averaging 523,179 daily jabs as of Wednesday. —Joviland Rita and Joahna Lei Casilao/KBK, GMA News