As the Delta variant spreads, China is determined to help bring "health for all" following its pledge to supply other countries with more vaccines to protect against the coronavirus.
Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian highlighted China's contribution to the global fight against pandemic, saying that developing nations will be among the recipients of the coronavirus vaccines promised by China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier pledged to supply 2 billion coronavirus vaccines this year, asserting that the jabs are considered global public good. China's commitment to expand coronavirus vaccine exports was made to a forum on international vaccine cooperation.
"China remains committed to building a global community of health for all and has provided vaccines to the world, especially developing countries," the Chinese ambassador said in a Facebook post on August 6.
"Such is the case of China and the Philippines' good ties that promptly brought over the essential vaccines, resulting in 15 million Filipinos completing their first and second doses without delay," he added.
Apart from the pledge of additional vaccine supply, Huang said President Xi made a $100 million commitment to the COVAX facility, a global vaccine-sharing scheme to ensure equitable access to the life-saving drugs.
"The 100 million USD to COVAX will mainly go to the distribution of vaccines to developing countries," he said.
"I am sure that with the international community's ceaseless efforts for every human from all walks of life, we will see a healthier and stronger community in the near future!" the envoy added.
China has so far reportedly delivered 770 million shots overseas and intends to provide more.
Of the 38.2 million COVID-19 shots received by the Philippines, around 20.5 million jabs were sourced from China's Sinovac company. From this number, the government of China donated 1 million Sinovac jabs to the country, that allowed the government to kick off the inoculation drive last March.
President Duterte remained grateful of China's vaccine donation, regarding Beijing a good friend and benefactor.
But as the coronavirus continued to take a toll on lives and livelihoods, the President has also appealed for equitable access to safe and effective vaccines. He has deplored that some rich nations have cornered the bulk of the world's supply while poor nations struggled to find vaccines.
Duterte previously said the country's vaccine supply remained insufficient for the vaccination of Filipinos right away due to the world's tight supply. He assured the public though that measures are being taken to procure additional vaccines to protect Filipinos from the virus.