The Philippines received over 2M additional doses of Pfizer vaccine from COVAX.
The Philippines received over two million additional doses of Pfizer vaccine through the World Health Organization-led COVAX Facility.
On Thursday night, the Philippines received a total of 2.28 million Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses through the WHO-led COVAX facility.
The vaccines, according to the Department of Health (DOH), will be administered to those under the A1 to A3 priority sector — the medical frontliners, senior citizens, and people with comorbidities.
“We will use these vaccines among our A1 to A3 priority groups. If we don’t vaccinate them we will encounter the same packed emergency rooms, unavailable intensive care units, and even hospital beds during the next surge,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
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WHO Country Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said that the vaccination of healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and those with underlying health conditions (A3) was “essential and needs to be accelerated,”.
According to Abeyasinghe, it’s urgent to achieve high vaccination coverage in those A1 to A3 groups in order to protect those at risk of severe disease and death.
Abeyasinghe added that the WHO encouraged the National Task Force (NTF) and the local government units (LGUs) to establish mechanisms in order to increase accessibility to vaccination of the healthcare workers and elderly across the Philippines.
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UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov said that the additional COVID-19 vaccines was “definitely a huge step that would contribute” in overcoming the challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
Aside from the arrival of additional doses of Pfizer vaccines, the Philippines on Thursday received one million additional doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine.
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