1.5 Million More Sinovac Vaccines Arrive in Philippines

As the country rushes inoculations.

by Arianne Merez

Photo/s: Handout

The Philippines on Thursday received 1.5 million more doses of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine as the country prepares for a possible surge in infections due to the Delta variant of coronavirus.

The vaccines arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the morning and were received by Health Sec. Francisco Duque III and vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. Another one million doses of Sinovac jabs are expected to arrive on Friday.

As of Thursday, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said the Philippines has received a total of 29,985,130 vaccine doses out of the 164 million doses secured by the country.

Of the vaccines delivered, 13.2 million were procured by the national government, 2.2 million were purchased by the private sector and local government units (LGUs), 10.2 million doses were donations via global vaccine sharing platform COVAX, and 2.1 million doses came from bilateral donations.

The Philippines is rushing inoculations in preparation for a possible surge in infections due to the more transmissible Delta variant.

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The highly contagious variant, which has been confirmed locally in the Philippines, is sweeping across Southeast Asia, prompting the return of lockdowns.

As of July 18, some 4.7 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated while some 10.3 million have received their first dose.