Philippines receives additional AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines

The Philippines on Sunday evening received the additional doses of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines allocated to the country under the COVAX global facility.

A total of 38,400 doses of vaccines developed by the Oxford University and British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca arrived in Manila on March 7 to add to the 487,200 that arrived on March 4.

In an interview on state-run PTV, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the vaccines that arrived on Sunday were not included in the initial batch that arrived last week due to cargo allotment issues.

"Nakita natin kasi 'yung last delivery, most likely baka sa cargo ano 'yun eh, sa cargo allotment. Ito nga commercial flight ito, so 'yung sa mga cargo baka hindi nagkasya," he explained.

The latest shipment completes the initial supply of 525,600 doses as the first batch of vaccines under the World Health Organization's (WHO) COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility.

The initial batch was originally scheduled to arrive on March 1, but was delayed. The government said it was due to supply issues, but the WHO clarified that it was due to logistical concerns.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far approved an emergency use authorization (EUA) for three vaccines -- AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Sinovac.

The Philippines now has 1.1 million legal doses of COVID-19 vaccines -- 600,000 doses donated by China; and the remaining 525,600 from the COVAX.

However, resident Rodrigo Duterte confirmed that members of the military, specifically to the Presidential Security Group, were vaccinated against COVID-19 last year.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) maintained that vaccine shipments from last year did not have an EUA and these drugs were therefore smuggled. — Jon Viktor Cabuenas/DVM, GMA News