MANILA, Philippines — A total of 866,970 doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine arrived Friday night in the Philippines, bringing the total number of jabs that have landed in the country to 109,779,530.
The fresh shipment of shots is the first batch of 1,733,940 Pfizer doses that were bought by the national government through a loan from the Asian Development Bank. The second batch, also consisting of 866,970 doses, will arrive Saturday night.
The Philippines has received over 31.2 million doses of Pfizer’s jab so far, with around 14.8 million of these having been donated through the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility and around 16.5 million purchased by the national government.
Of the seven vaccine brands that have reached the Philippines, Pfizer’s shots are the second most common jab in the country, preceded by Sinovac.
The Philippines began its vaccination program in March, with a goal of getting the shots into the arms of up to 77 million individuals this year.
Philstar.com's independent monitoring shows that 26.34% of Filipinos have been fully vaccinated, while 30.96% have received the first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.
— Xave Gregorio