MANILA, Philippines — Over three million more AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived in the Philippines on Thursday, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF-COVID-19) reported.
The country received 3,191,040 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, donated by the government of the United Kingdom (UK) through the Covax Facility.
The shipment arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 at 4:03 p.m via EK332 flight.
The NTF-COVID-19 likewise said that 288,000 and 1,746,160 AstraZeneca vaccine doses are expected to be delivered in the country on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
The expected vaccines are also donated by the UK government.
“On behalf of the British embassy and the British government, we’re delighted to be seeing the donation of 5.2 million doses of vaccines over the next three days in partnership with the WHO (World Health Organization) and with Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund) to ensure equitable access for vaccines for those that most need it here in the Philippines,” British Embassy Consul Neill James said.
Wilben Mayor, NTF-COVID-19 head of strategic communications on current operations, expressed appreciation to the UK government for the donation.
“We would like to thank the United Kingdom government and Covax for donating the 5.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine,” he said.
Mayor called on Filipinos to participate in the government’s three-day national vaccination days from November 29 to December 1.
“Muli, sa mga kababayan natin dahil tuloy-tuloy na nga po ang pagdating ng ating mga bakuna, hinihikayat po namin kayo na magpabakuna na po,” he encouraged.
(Again, to my fellow Filipinos, since the arrival of vaccines is continuous, we encourage you to get vaccinated.)
The country now has received a total of 138 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Mayor said.
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