After encountering some delays, Russian vaccine manufacturer Gamaleya Research Institute was finally able to transport 132,200 doses of Sputnik V vaccines to the country late Friday night, July 9.
The shipment of the anti-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines was flown into the country via Qatar Airways flight QR 928 around 10:30 p.m. at Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City.
The vaccines were procured by the national government from Russia.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, welcomed the shipment of Sputnik V vaccines along with Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlov.
According to Galvez, the shipment was composed of 82,200 doses that will be used for first dose inoculation (component I), while the remaining 50,000 doses will be used for second dose vaccination (component II).
The vaccines were supposed to be delivered last Wednesday but it did not push through due to logistics issues.
Another 37,800 doses of Sputnik V jabs will arrive on Saturday night to complete the 170,000 doses that were allocated by Russia to the Philippines for the month of July.
The Sputnik V delivery was the third shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to arrive in the country since Thursday, July 8.
Earlier Friday, a total of 2.028 million doses of AstraZeneca jabs arrived in Manila as donation via the COVAX facility.
It was on Thursday night when the Japanese government's donation of 1,124,100 AstraZeneca vials arrived in the country--the first vaccine delivery for the month.
The total number of vaccines delivered to the country rose to 20,739,770 doses with the latest Sputnik V shipment.