Thanks, Joe and Kamala: Philippines Getting More Vaccines from U.S.

The Philippines stands to receive a donation of COVID-19 vaccines from its long-standing ally, the U.S., which is seeking to redistribute a surplus of jabs to developing nations, the White House said Monday (Tuesday in Manila).

Manila will receive a portion of 16 million doses alloted for Asia, from the total 55 million that the U.S. will donate via COVAX led by the World Health Organization, according to a White House statement.

The Philippines will also partake of the 14 million doses shared directly to the regions "to help deal with surges around the world," according to the statement.

"As we have previously stated, the United States will not use its vaccines to secure favors from other countries," it said.

The Biden-Harris administration has allocated 80 million doses of its vaccine supply for the rest of the world to help end the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Philippines was also one of several Asian countries that were chosen to receive part of the approximately seven million doses of the first 25 million doses of U.S.' global vaccine sharing.

Manila's top envoy to Washington earlier said that the Philippines would be among the first ones to receive the vaccine surplus from the U.S. as its "close ally."

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said earlier that the 80 million doses would be delivered by end of June.

He said the first tranche is coming from the federal supply of doses and will be comprised of a combination of the three vaccines with current U.S. emergency use authorization: Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.