1M more Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses arrive in the Philippines

One million more doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Philippines on Monday, bringing the country's total supply of the vaccine brand to 12 million doses.

The one million doses arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) around 7:30 a.m., according to a report of Mao dela Cruz on Dobol B TV.

JUST IN: Eroplanong may dala ng 1-M doses ng Sinovac na binili ng pamahalaan sa China, lumapag na sa Ninoy Aquino International Airport o NAIA. | via Mao dela Cruz pic.twitter.com/0ExToHDJuq

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) June 27, 2021

Workers unload from a Cebu Pacific plane containers carrying one million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines on Monday morning, June 28, 2021 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Flight 5J 671 transported the vaccines from Beijing, China. Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. was at the NAIA on Monday together with representatives from the Department of Health for the event.  Photo courtesy: Cebu Pacific

According to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, the Philippines has 10.1 million doses of Sinovac vaccine, including the latest arrival, plus one million doses from donation, and 900,000 procured by local government units and the private sector.

Vaccine czar and National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Undersecretary Maria Carolina Vidal-Taiño welcomed the arrival on Monday of the Sinovac doses.

Just hours prior to the arrival of the Sinovac doses, almost 250,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the country.

The 249,600 Moderna doses arrived at the NAIA Terminal 3 before 11 p.m. 

Of this total, 150,000 doses were procured by the government and the remaining 99,600 doses were purchased by the private sector led by International Container Terminal Services, Inc.

As of June 20, the Department of Health said a total of 8,407,342 COVID-19 doses have been administered in the Philippines.

Of this number, 6,253,400 shots were for the first dose while 2,153,942 were for the second dose.

The Philippines has a total of 17,455,470 doses of vaccine supply from all brands as of Monday, including those from Moderna, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sputnik V.

To achieve herd immunity, the Philippines is eyeing to vaccinate around 58 million or 70% of 83 million people who live in COVID-19 hotspots.

On Thursday, NTF Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon said the Philippines is projected to hit 10 million total jabs by this week. —Joviland Rita/KG/RSJ, GMA News