The government of Japan will be donating AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Philippines, as the immunization program expands, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Tuesday.
Developed by the University of Oxford in the UK, the donations to the Philippines are manufactured in Japan, Dominguez said during a hearing of the Senate Committee of the Whole.
The size of the donation was not immediately disclosed.
Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koshikawa Kazuhiko also shared the development on Twitter, saying the delivery would come "at the soonest possible time so no one gets left behind during this pandemic."
AstraZeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine has shown "an average efficacy of 70%" in trials. The results ranged between 62% and 90% efficacy depending on the vaccine dosage.
Japan also previously donated over one million AstraZeneca doses to Taiwan.
Over 12 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have so far been delivered to the Philippines, of which 2.5 million doses are AstraZeneca jabs. The country aims to achieve "population protection" by November this year, with at least 50 million people vaccinated.
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