Almost 1M Pfizer vaccine doses arrive in PH

NEARLY a million doses of Pfizer coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines arrived in the Philippines on Wednesday evening, October 27, 2021.

The 976,950 doses of Pfizer vaccines procured by the government through the Asian Development Bank (ADB) arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 at 9:50 p.m.

The National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 said another batch of Covid-19 vaccines, including over 1.7 million doses of Pfizer and Astrazeneca vaccines, are also expected to arrive in the country Thursday, October 28.

As of October 25, a total of 97,678,340 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have arrived in the Philippines.

Of these doses, 77.99 million have been deployed to local government units, while 56.25 million doses have already been administered nationwide.

There are currently 25,955,669 fully vaccinated individuals in the country, which represents 33.65 percent of the country’s target population.

For the pediatric vaccination, the NTF said 12,958 adolescents aged 12 to 17 with comorbidities have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines.

NTF chief Carlito Galvez Jr. said they are confident the country will hit the 100 million vaccine doses on stockpile before the month ends.

Galvez said these additional vaccines would enable the country to fully vaccinate at least 50 million individuals before year end.

He said with the country’s increasing vaccine supply, the National Government will continue to accelerate the vaccine rollout for children aged 12 to 17 by opening more vaccination sites for them.

Galvez said the country already has 26 hospitals administering Covid-19 vaccines to the pediatric sector.

“The vaccination of children will also be instrumental in the reopening of face-to-face classes and ‘ancillary businesses’ related to the education sector,” he said.

The government aims to vaccinate at least 12.7 million individuals in the said age group. (SunStar Philippines)