More than 500,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) arrived in the country on Wednesday night, July 21.
A shipment carrying 511,290 doses of Pfizer landed at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu around 6:45 p.m.
The government-procured vaccines were delivered via DHL Aviation flight LD 457 as operated by Air Hong Kong (AHK).
Sec. Carlito Galvez, vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, said 51,480 doses will be distributed in Cebu.
Meanwhile, the remaining 459,810 doses were brought to Manila via the same flight. The plane is expected to land at Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City around 9:20 p.m.
Aside from this, an additional 51,480 doses of Pfizer will be delivered via the same flight in Davao City around 6:30 a.m. Thursday, July 22.
According to Galvez, the United States-based vaccine manufacturer opted to deliver the vaccines directly in the three main "hubs" in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to preserve its efficacy.
While other brands of vaccines are usually delivered in Manila before they are distributed to other parts of the country, Pfizer has very sensitive characteristics which require it to be transported directly to its cold storage warehouses, he explained.
Aside from the Pfizer jabs, China will also deliver 2.5 million doses of Sinovac on Thursday and Friday.
The first shipment containing 1.5 million doses will arrive around 7:35 a.m. Thursday at NAIA Terminal 3. Meanwhile, the second shipment containing one million doses will be delivered on Friday morning.
As of Wednesday night, the current vaccine supply stood at 28,433,650 doses.