MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Wednesday night received nearly a million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine that added to the government's procured supply.
Officials welcomed the arrival of the new jabs which were delivered by an Air Hongkong plane at the NAIA Terminal 3 in Pasay close to 9 p.m. of October 27.
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This brought the country's supply of Pfizer's vaccine to 27.31 million doses, according to a monitoring by Philstar.com.
Some 14.65 million doses of that were purchased by the national government, while 12.66 million doses were donations from the global initiative COVAX Facility.
The arrival of new Pfizer doses comes as the Philippines is set to expand further its inoculation efforts on adolescents, and health authorities approving booster shots and third doses.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said beginning November 3, inoculation on minors aged 12 to 17 would be open then in the entire country, even for those without comorbidities.
Pfizer is among the two vaccine brands cleared by local drug regulators for use on the said age group, along with Moderna.
The Department of Health, meanwhile, has said administering booster shots for health workers and the elderly could begin late this year or early 2022.
Official data on October 26 showed there are now 26.18 million Filipinos fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
The figure is out of the government's target of 77.13 million this year and translates to 24% of the country's entire population.
Some 30.63 million have received an initial shot, with 56.82 million doses administered in total to date. — Christian Deiparine