1M more vaccines from China arrive in Manila
THE PHILIPPINES on Wednesday took delivery of a million more doses of CoronaVac from China, according to the country’s pandemic task force.
The latest shipment is part of the 26 million doses of CoronaVac the government bought this year, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 tweeted.
The shipment is also the first batch of CoronaVac doses to be delivered to the country this month, it said. It also said 1.5 more CoronaVac doses are expected to arrive on July 17.
The delivery comes after some local governments in the capital region halted the second-dose vaccinations of CoronaVacs as supplies ran out.
The country has received about 13 million doses of CoronaVac, 11.1 million of which were bought by the National Government, a million doses were donated by the Chinese government and 900,000 were paid for by local governments and private companies.
Meanwhile, about 250,800 doses of the vaccine made by Moderna, Inc. would arrive on July 15, presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr. told a televised news briefing.
The government bought 194,400 doses, while the private sector bought the remaining 56,400 doses.
About 13.8 million vaccine doses have been given out as of July 13, about 9.9 million of which were first doses, Mr. Roque said.
The country would take delivery on July 19 of about 3.2 million doses of the vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Health department earlier said.
The shipment donated by the United States through a global initiative for equal access is part of the 16 million vaccine doses that are set to arrive this month.
Vaccine czar Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. on Monday night said the Philippines would receive about 16.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines next month.