Philippines to get 10 million new COVID-19 vaccine doses from COVAX — WHO

MANILA, Philippines — COVAX Facility will provide 10 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday. 

The new batch of donated jabs will come on top of the 13 million doses the global initiative, co-led by the WHO, had already sent, per Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe. 

"We are looking at increasing vaccine allocations to the Philippines," the WHO country representative told a government briefing. "We expect larger consignments to come within this third and fourth quarters."

Abeyasinghe said the additional doses could arrive in the coming weeks, as the country continues to battle a fresh wave of record-high infections driven by the Delta variant.

Vaccines sent by the COVAX Facility to the country are: AstraZeneca at 4.58 million doses, Johnson & Johnson at 3.2 million, Moderna at 3 million, and Pfizer at 2.66 million, per Philstar.com's monitoring. 

Latest figures showed there are now 17.07 million Filipinos fully vaccinated for COVID-19. 

That amounts to 22.14% of the government's goal of up to 70 million inoculated this year to meet "population protection," a term it has since used instead of herd immunity. 

Some 22.06 million, or 28.60%, have received their initial dose.

In the same briefing, Abeyasinghe stressed the WHO's stand that there is still no need for booster shots.

The WHO had appealed to wealthier countries for a moratorium on the use of a third dose as it said many across the globe have yet to received even a first shot. 

"Our current position is that since the vaccines are effective in preventing severe disease and death," Abeyasinghe said, "it is more important to address the global inequity in access to vaccines."

Health authorities at home have followed through with that pronouncement, as the country also faces supply woes. 

The government has said the entire 109 million population should be vaccinated first before it allows booster shots.