The Philippines on Friday night received about 288,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine donated by the British government through the COVAX Facility.
According to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, the latest dose of vaccines arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) through an Emirates plane.
"The UK is absolutely delighted that we were able to provide 5.2 million doses of Astrazeneca this week through COVAX," said British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils.
The remaining 1.74 million AstraZeneca doses are expected to arrive in the country on Saturday, November 27.
Beaufils noted that the UK government is committed to supplying the Philippines with up to 100 million doses by 2022.
NTF Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., who welcomed the arrival of the jabs, thanked the British government for its generous vaccine donation.
“We believe that AstraZeneca [is] considering that it has good real world data, especially on having this as a booster dose and as a primary shot. We have a good reason that many people will benefit from these life-saving vaccines,” Galvez said.
As of November 26, a total of 139,860,080 COVID-19 vaccine doses have arrived in the Philippines.
