Poland donates 547,100 AstraZeneca doses to Philippines

The Philippines on Sunday received over half a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Poland, bringing the country’s total supplies to over 142 million doses.

The shipment of 547,100 doses arrived at Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Sunday afternoon, November 28.

The donation is "a sign of our friendship with the Philippines. It's also an expression of the solidarity of the Polish nation with the Filipino people," said Polish Embassy Charge d'Affaires Jaroslaw Szczepankiewicz, who was on hand to greet the arrival of the vaccines with vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.

Galvez, for his part, thanked Poland for the donation and said that the shots will be used in the upcoming three-day national vaccination drive.

Data available from the National Task Force for COVID-19 show that the Philippines has received a total of 142,153,340 vaccine doses from various manufacturers since February.

Local health officials have so far administered 81,017,994 doses across the country, of which 45,286,049 have received their first dose while 35,557,409 have been fully vaccinated. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News