Philippines receives 1.5M doses of China's Sinovac vaccine

By Pizaro Gozali Idrus

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AA) – The Philippines has received 1.5 million more doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, the Chinese company’s largest delivery to the Southeast Asian country to date, authorities said on Friday.

The shipment was sent via Cebu Pacific flights that landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, according to a statement by the National Task Force Against COVID-19.

The Philippines has so far received over 5.54 million (5,540,600) doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 5 million Sinovac jabs, 525,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and 15,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

Manila expects more AstraZeneca doses and a shipment of the Pfizer vaccine under the COVAX facility, a WHO-backed initiative for equitable worldwide vaccine distribution, within the second quarter.

According to the statement, more than 2 million vaccine shots have been administered in the Philippines since the nationwide rollout started in March.

The government aims to inoculate at least 70 million of the 108 million population by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity.

The COVID-19 caseload in the Philippines currently stands at over 1.08 million, including more than 18,000 fatalities.

* Writing by Rhany Chairunissa Rufinaldo with Anadolu Agency’s Indonesian language services in Jakarta