Chinese manufacturer Sinovac Biotech delivered an additional three million doses of its CoronaVac vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to the country late Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 31.
Philippine Air Lines (PAL) flight PR359 fetched the vaccines from Beijing and arrived at Terminal 2 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City at exactly 5:33 p.m.
Meanwhile, 15,000 doses of Sputnik V jabs will also arrive at NAIA around 10:45 p.m.
Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, said majority of the supplies will be allocated to provinces with high cases as the National Capital Region (NCR) -- the epicenter of the pandemic -- already vaccinated 45 percent of its 9.78 million eligible population.
"Ito po ay ibibigay natin sa mga probinsya lalo na po sa Cavite, Laguna, at saka ang mga tinatamaan na malalaki. Ang Metro Manila baka ang ibibigay lang natin kaunti lang, pang second dose nila (We will give it to the provinces especially in Cavite, Laguna, and other big that are severely hit. Metro Manila will get a little, enough for their second dose)," Galvez said in a pre-recorded Cabinet meeting with President Duterte aired earlier in the day.
"Ito po ang pangako natin na isi-shift na po natin ang focus natin sa mga LGU sa mga probinsya ngayon (This is the fulfillment of our promise that we will shift our focus to in the provinces now)," he added.
The arrival brought the total vaccine supply to 51,885,590 doses. These include 29.5 million doses of Sinovac jabs.
A total of 33,099,392 doses have been administered nationwide as of Aug. 29. Of these, more than 19.31 million have received their first dose while 13.78 million have been fully vaccinated.
The NTF recorded a weekly vaccine throughput of 387,176 doses in the last seven days.
In September and November, the government expects the delivery of 25 million and 29.5 million doses of COVId-19 vaccines, respectively.