The Philippines is aiming to secure one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines under the global vaccine scheme known as COVAX facility.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government would send a letter requesting for an additional 900,000 Pfizer doses from the World Health Organization-led vaccine facility. 

The vaccine request will be on top of the 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines already allocated to the Philippines under COVAX facility, which are expected to arrive in the first quarter of the year.

"Sa ngayon po, gumagawa po kami ng sulat dahil kasi nakasaad po sa COVAX arrangement na if we can have submission for additional more than 900,000 to make it one million iyong ating vaccine sa Pfizer ay gagawin po namin iyon (At present, we are drafting a letter because it is stated in our COVAX arrangement that if we can have submission for additional more than 900,000 to make it one million, we will do that)," Galvez said during a public briefing Wednesday.

"So, we are now preparing the letter and we will submit it before February 14 and additionally, ongoing pa rin naman po iyong ating negotiations with Pfizer (additionally, our negotiations with Pfizer are ongoing)," he added.

Apart from Pfizer vaccines, the country is also expected to receive 5.5 million to 9.2 million doses of vaccines developed by AstraZeneca under the COVAX facility. The initial shipment is expected to arrive in the country this month.

Last month, the Philippines received confirmation that it would be among beneficiaries of the early vaccine rollout under the COVAX facility.

The global scheme, launched in April 2020, seeks to ensure equitable access of the coronavirus vaccines across the world. It aims to distribute more than 2 billion doses of vaccines with poor and middle-income countries getting a bigger share by the end of the year.