Philippines receives 1.5 million doses of donated J&J vaccine

The Philippines received on Monday night 1,526,400 doses of Janssen COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Dutch government through the COVAX facility.

According to state media PTV, the Janssen vaccines, made by Johnson & Johnson, were delivered at the Ninoy Aquino  International Airport Terminal 3.

In a statement, the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Manila said the delivery is part of the 7.5 million Janssen COVID-19 jabs by the Netherlands.

"This donation is part of the joint solidarity effort of the European Union and its member states to provide at least 100 million vaccine doses worldwide by the end of 2021 to countries in need," read the statement.

This is also the largest single donation delivered to the Philippines, the embassy said.

Janssen vaccines are also easy to store and deploy, which will be able to reach people in rural areas.

According to the National Task Force  against COVID-19, the Philippines received 158,540,170 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from various manufacturers.

Meanwhile, as of December 13, more than 41 million Filipinos are already fully inoculated versus COVID-19, which is 53.20% of the country's adult population.—Consuelo Marquez/LDF, GMA News