The Philippines is expected to receive some 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday, as it stood on guard against the Delta variant.
A total of 1.5 million doses of government-procured Sinovac jabs arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. This brought the total number of doses from the Chinese biotech firm to 14.5 million, including donations from Beijing.
Another shipment of 1.6 million Johnson&Johnson vaccines are also expected to arrive on later in the day, which is part of the total 55 million that the U.S. donated to different countries via COVAX.
The single-shot vaccine is reported effective against the highly contagious Delta variant. The initial shipment of 1.6 million jabs arrived on Friday, the same day the Philippines confirmed 16 local cases of the variant that is driving surges in infections across Southeast Asia.
The Philippines has so far fully vaccinated some four million people against COVID-19. It is targeting to inoculate 50 million this year to achieve population protection, or 70 million for herd immunity.
