Philippines gets over 1M Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses from Australia

The Philippines received on Friday a total of 1,138,430 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Australian government through the United Nations Children's Fund.

The fresh batch of vaccines landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 past 9 p.m., according to the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19.

NTF against COVID-19 medical consultant Dr. Ma. Paz Corrales expressed gratitude to the foreign partners who helped to build up the vaccine supply in the country, which used to inoculate Filipinos against COVID-19.

Corrales said the government has covered at least three million out of the five million target in the third wave of the “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” which was extended until Friday, February 18.

“Today is the last day of our national vaccination day and we were able to cover three million out of the five million,” Corrales said.

“There are a lot of factors that is why we were not able to reach the target, one is the occurrence of Typhoon Odette, then most of our health workers were afflicted with COVID, and there’s a little percent of vaccine hesitancy still with our Filipinos,” she added.

The government has yet to reach its target of 90% population protection. However, it achieved its previous target of vaccinating 70% of the population.

Based on the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC), the country has administered a total 128,700,168 of COVID-19 vaccine doses nationwide as of February 9.

The NVOC said at least 60,674,767 first doses have been administered, while 60,013,407 individuals were fully vaccinated and 8,011,994 were booster shots.

The Philippines started its vaccination program in March last year.—LDF, GMA News