Around 2.6 million doses of Moderna and Pfizer coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines arrived in the country on Monday, Dec. 6, which pushed the total vaccine supply to 149,069,620 doses.
First to arrive was the shipment containing 1,497,200 doses of Moderna jabs onboard China Airlines flight CI703. It landed on Terminal 1 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) around 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, another shipment carrying 1,085,760 doses of Pfizer arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 aboard Air Hong Kong Airlines flight LD456 around 9 p.m.
All of the delivered vaccines were bought by the government from the United States-based vaccine manufacturers Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, head of National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19’s strategic communications on current operations, said the vaccines will be used for the ongoing primary series vaccination, pediatric inoculation, and booster vaccination.
Around 60 million doses more of COVID-19 vaccines will arrive this month, Mayor shared.
“Almost 60 million pa itong taon na ito... bago matapos ang taon. Kaya talagang sapat na sapat ang bakuna lalung-lalo itong taon na ito (Almost 60 million doses this year... before the year ends. That’s why we have enough supply of vaccines especially this year),” he said.
Meanwhile, some of the supplies will also be allocated for the second leg of the “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” National Vaccination Days from Dec. 15 to 17.
In the extended first leg of the Bayanihan, Bakunahan program, a total of 9,937,827 doses were administered from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, exceeding the NTF's target output of nine million doses.
As of December 5, a total of 38,168,603 Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 while 53,098,886 others have received their first dose, according to data from the NTF.
The fully vaccinated population represents around 49.48 percent of the 77 million eligible population that is targeted to be fully jabbed by yearend to achieve herd immunity.
There were also 509,944 individuals who have received their booster shots.
“Ang aim po ng ating pamahalaan ay pagdating ng first quarter ng 2022, almost 90 percent po ang babakunahan (The government aims to vaccinate almost 90 percent by the first quarter of 2022),” Mayor said.
“Mas maganda abutin ang 90 percent, hindi lang 70 percent. But again ang target is umabot ng 70 to 80 (It is better to attain 90 percent completion, not only 70 percent. But again, the target is to reach 70 to 80 ),” he noted.