Philippines welcomes 3 million Sinovac doses

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Sunday night received three million new doses of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine, consisting of procured supply from the government and of donations from Beijing. 

A Philippine Airlines plane landed at the NAIA Terminal 2 in Parañaque past 6 p.m. of October 24. 

The National Task Force against COVID-19 said two million doses from the shipment were purchased by the national government, while the remaining million were donated by China. 

It brought Beijing's donated supply of the jabs to Manila at three million to date, as well as a million doses of Sinopharm in August this year. 

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. noted this was the 100th shipment of a COVID-19 vaccine to the country. 

“This demonstrates the kind of friendship from the Chinese government and Chinese people to the Philippine government and Philippine people,” said Ambassador Huang Xilian of China, which the Philippines is involved in a maritime dispute with. 

The Philippines began its inoculation efforts in March, with donated Sinovac the first to reach the country. 

Nearly eight months later, Sinovac remains the most number of vaccine supply in the country at 44.50 million doses, per Philstar.com's monitoring. 

Of that, 41.60 million were procured by the national government, two million donated by China, 500,000 purchased by the private sector, and 400,000 by local governments. 

This year, officials are targeting to inoculate some 77.13 million eligible individuals to meet "population protection."

Official data as of October 24 showed there are now 25.71 million Filipinos fully vaccinated for COVID-19, while 30.03 million have received a first dose.