Philippines receives 3.5M more Sinovac vaccine doses

The Philippines on Wednesday morning received an additional 3.5 million doses of government-procured Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine.

The 3,530,400 vaccine doses, procured through the Asian Development Bank (ADB), arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 past 7 a.m.

"We hope that the arrival of the 3.5 million vaccines would further contribute to bringing down the cases in this country and contribute to the early recovery of the economy and social life here," said Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian, who welcomed the arrival.

Huang also congratulated the Philippine government for the decrease in COVID-19 cases in the country.

"We congratulate that kind of major improvement," he said. "We hope to see that the people in this country will enjoy the social recovery."

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., who also welcomed the arrival, thanked the Chinese government for the vaccine doses, noting that the country has gotten more than 54 million doses of Sinovac, including the two million doses donated by them.

"These doses comprise more than 40% of our country's total vaccine supply," he said.

"With the arrival of these CoronaVac jabs, we are moving closer to our goal of reaching a daily vaccination rate of 1.5 million doses and achieving the population protection by year end."

Galvez said that the Filipinos will always be grateful for China for helping start the vaccination rollout in the Philippines earlier this year when vaccine supply was limited.

Aside from Huang and Galvez, also present during the arrival were Chief of Presidential Protocol and Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs Usec. Robert Borje, Department of Health (DOH) Usec. Ma. Carolina Vidal-Taiño, DOH Director Ariel Valencia, and NTF medical consultant Dr. Paz Corrales.

This country on Tuesday logged only 849 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the country's total tally to 2,819,341, after six laboratories failed to submit their data.

This is the lowest number of new cases since December 28, 2020.

The total recoveries is at 2,748,069 after 2,393 more patients defeated the viral disease, while death toll climbed to 45,808 with 99 new fatalities. —KBK, GMA News