Nearly 400K Pfizer doses arrive in the Philippines

Nearly 400,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Philippines on Wednesday night.

The 391,950 Pfizer doses landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 past 10 p.m.

The latest shipment brings the country's total vaccine doses to over 70 million.
The country began its vaccination program on March 1.

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said Regions 3 and 4 would be prioritized in the deployment of the Pfizer jabs.

"Kasi hinahabol natin ang Regions 3 and 4 sa NCR kasi napakalaki ng ating risk. Once nagkaroon ng overwhelming cases sa Regions 3 and 4, nagsa-suffer ang NCR," Galvez said.

Over 20 million Filipinos have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19 since the national inoculation program started on March 1.

The country has so far recorded 2,535,732 COVID-19 cases with 2,365,229 recoveries and 38,164 fatalities.

Finished by year-end

Galvez said the government aimed to vaccinate 77 million individuals before the end of the year.

Of the 77 million, 7 million are from the adolescent population, while the 70 million is from the adult population.

Galvez said the pilot vaccination of the adolescent population would be done incrementally in five hospitals including the Philippine General Hospital, Heart Center of the Philippines, and other children's hospitals.

The pilot vaccination will begin in Metro Manila starting October, he added.

The government is looking to first vaccinate those aged 15 to 17 years old, Galvez said.

The Department of Health and experts have yet to issue a recommendation on the vaccination of  children against COVID-19, even if an emergency use authorization had already been given for the use of Moderna shots for those aged 12 to 17 years old.

Further, Galvez said the government targets to begin the vaccination of the general public by next month. —LDF/NB, GMA News