Philippines receives 609,570 more doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

The Philippines received an additional 609,570 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Thursday night.

According to the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, the latest batch of vaccine doses landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, head of the NTF Against COVID-19's sub-task group on current operations, thanked the United States government for facilitating and helping in the procurement of the vaccines.

He said the Philippines has received 129,053,970 doses of vaccines since February.

“We have administered 72 million, and out of that 72 million plus administered vaccine, 40,179,796 doses for the first dose and 32,158,581 for those fully vaccinated representing 42.24% of the target population of the Philippines,” Mayor said.

“Sa ating kababayan, ine-encourage namin kayo magpabakuna na dahil napakarami na nating bakuna. Sabi nga ang pinakamagandang regalo natin sa Pasko, sabi ni Secretary Carlito Galvez, ay ang bakuna. Maligayang Pasko ang bakunado,” he added.

(To our fellow Filipinos, we encourage you to get vaccinated because we already have so many vaccines. Galvez said the best gift for Christmas is vaccines. Merry Christmas to those vaccinated.)

Mayor said an additional 609,570 doses of Pfizer vaccine will arrive in the country on Friday.

The country officially started its vaccination program on March 1. — Richa Noriega/BM, GMA News