The country received yet another coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine donation from China with the arrival of 739,200 doses of Sinopharm on Friday, Aug. 20.
The free jabs arrived around 5:55 p.m. at Terminal 2 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City.
Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, said the vaccines were part of the total one million Sinopharm that would be donated by Beijing to Manila.
The rest of the supplies are expected to be transported within this week.
Earlier in the day, the government and private sector received 582,500 doses of AstraZeneca that were procured through a multilateral arrangement.
This was the third time that China donated COVID-19 jabs to the Philippines as part of its efforts to help the country respond to the global health crisis.
On February 28, China donated 600,000 doses of Sinovac which allowed the country to kick off the national vaccination program in the succeeding month.
This was followed by a donation of 400,000 doses of Sinovac on March 24 -- a period where the country was struggling to secure a supply of vaccines due to global demand.
Since then, the country has already received 47,262,090 doses of COVID-19 vaccines including 839,200 doses of Sinopharm.
The other 100,000 doses of Sinopharm came from the donations of the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last Aug. 11.