MANILA, Philippines — Some 2.2 million doses of US-made Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Philippines on Thursday night.
The vaccine doses, which came from the global initiative COVAX facility, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 at around 8:30 p.m., the National Task Force against COVID-19 said.
In a Twitter post, the presidential assistant on foreign affairs and chief of presidential protocol, Robert Borje, said 210,000 doses were delivered in Cebu while 110,000 were sent to Davao City.
LOOK: Close to 1.9 million doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility arrives in Manila. Earlier today, around 210,000 and 111,000 doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines were delivered to Cebu and Davao City. More vaccines, more lives saved! 🇵🇭 pic.twitter.com/BGLFbJHqUI
— PAFA (@ph_opafa) June 10, 2021
The rest is for Manila.
This is the second shipment of Pfizer vaccines to the Philippines. The first was on May 10 with 193,050 doses.
READ: In PH now: First shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX
Earlier on Thursday, the Philippines also received one million doses of Chinese drug firm Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine, CoronaVac.
This is by far the biggest shipment of COVID-19 vaccines the Philippines has received in a single day, amounting to 3.2 million doses.
READ: 1 M more doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine arrive in PH
In a joint statement on Thursday, the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said the vaccines would be given to priority groups A1 to A3 — medical frontliners, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities.
“We will use these vaccines among our A1 to A3 priority groups. If we don’t vaccinate them, we will encounter the same packed emergency rooms, unavailable intensive care units, and even hospital beds during the next surge,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
“Given the surge in cases in some regions, it is urgent to achieve high vaccination coverage in these A1 to A3 groups to protect those at risk of severe disease and death. WHO urges the National Task Force and the local government units to establish mechanisms to increase accessibility to vaccination of the healthcare workers and elderly across the country,” WHO Country Representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe said.