Philippines gets 3 million more Sinovac doses

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Thursday received three million more doses of its procured supply of Sinovac's COVID-19 jab. 

A Philippine Airlines plane carrying the additional doses landed at the NAIA Terminal 2 in Pasay on the afternoon of August 19. 

The pandemic task force said this delivery is part of the 26 million doses in total that the government purchased from the Chinese manufacturer. 

Sinovac makes up most of the country's vaccine supply at 25.5 million doses.

Some 23.6 million of that were bought by the national government, 500,000 by the private sector, and 400,000 by local governments. 

The arrival of new doses come as authorities double time to vaccinate more of the eligible population and amid a significant increase in coronavirus cases.

Latest government data showed there are now 12.87 million Filipinos fully vaccinated for COVID-19, against the target of 70 million this year. 

Malacañang said 582,500 new AstraZeneca doses bought by the private sector would arrive on Friday, along with an initial 739,200 Sinopharm doses donated by China. Beijing had announced it would send a million doses of the jabs. — with reports from Philstar.com intern Siegfred Aldous Lacerna