MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Monday night received over 375,000 doses of the vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech as the Philippines braces for the threat of the dreaded Delta variant.
Of the total 375,570 doses, 51,489 doses were delivered to Cebu City, while 51,480 doses will be shipped to Davao City on Tuesday.
The latest batch of government-procured COVID-19 jabs arrived as the country scrambles to stop the highly contagious variant from spreading in communities after it has triggered a surge in cases across Southeast Asia.
The shipment was part of the 40 million vaccine doses that the government purchased from the American pharmaceutical firm.
Only 6.08 million out of the country’s 109 million population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 since inoculation efforts began in March. Another 11.11 million Filipinos have received partial protection from the virus.
The Philippines has so far reported 1.55 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. Of the total, 3.5% were active cases. — Gaea Katreena Cabico