A SECOND shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived Sunday, March 7, 2021, completing the first tranche of donations from the Covax facility.

Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force Against Covid-19 and vaccine czar, received the shipment with 38,400 additional doses of the AZ vaccine.

These were transported by KLM Asia three days after the first shipment with 487,200 doses arrived.

A total of 525,600 doses of AZ vaccine have now been delivered to the Philippines from Covax, the global initiative to ensure vaccine equity.

To date, a total of 54,500 AZ doses have already been deployed across the country. Of this number 1,500 doses have been sent to hospitals in the National Capital Region, 13,000 to Calabarzon, 10,000 to Cordillera Administrative Region and 20,000 to Central Luzon.

Galvez said the government aims to deploy an additional 240,720 vaccine doses to other regions within this week.

“Hopefully, yung Covax facility ay magdagdag ulit ng second tranche ng AstraZeneca. So, ang expected natin ngayong May, pipilitin po natin matapos ‘yung lahat ng ating ospital. And then by April, magsisimula na tayo sa [vaccination ng] ibang mga sektor,” Galvez said.

He thanked the World Health Organization, Gavi, Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Unicef for the donation.

The government has also deployed 317,350 doses of Sinovac for healthcare workers in hospitals and healthcare facilities in Culion, Palawan; Bontoc, Mountain Province; Marinduque; BARMM; and Basilan. (SunStar Philippines from PR)