Philippines gets over 1 million doses of Pfizer vaccine

The Philippines on Thursday received an additional 1,187,550 doses of government-procured Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

The National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said the fresh batch of vaccine doses landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 past 8 p.m.

NTF COVID-19 special adviser Ted Herbosa thanked the United States government for the delivery of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.

Herbosa cited the approval of the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 to 11 years old, saying it was a “big development” for the country.

“However, we still have to wait for the actual dose and the concentration that has to be procured so that would probably come in January,” he said.

Herbosa said that the vaccination drive in affected areas battered by Typhoon Odette including Region 3 and 4A is being ramped up to achieve the target of 54 million fully vaccinated individuals by the end of the year.

The country also earlier received an additional 1,531,000 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine donated by the German government through the COVAX facility.

Based on the National COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard, a total of 104,379,306 doses were administered, with over 46 million individuals fully vaccinated as of December 22.

The country started its vaccination program on March 1.—Richa Noriega/LDF, GMA News