The country will receive delivery of around 2.8 million doses of coronavirus vaccines this week to beef up its vaccination drive amid the surge of COVID-19 cases, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque announced on Monday, August 9.

In his virtual presser, Roque said some 813,150 doses of Pfizer vaccine procured by the national government is scheduled to arrive this Wednesday, Aug. 11.
The Palace official also noted the arrival of two million doses of China’s Sinovac—CoronaVac vaccine the next day. These are also government-procured vaccines.
With the shipments of additional vaccine doses, the COVID-19 doses in the Philippines are nearing the 40-million mark in an attempt to achieve population protection before the year ends.
As of Aug. 8, the government’s COVID-19 task force reported the arrival of 38,602,200 vaccine doses in the country since February this year.
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“Inaasahan natin na patuloy ang pagtaas nang pagbabakuna habang patuloy ang pagdating ng mga supply (We expect the continuous increase of vaccination rate while vaccine supply continues to arrive),” Roque said.
The vaccines will be immediately delivered to PharmaServ Express’ cold-chain facility in Marikina City for temporary storage before they are packed and distributed to various areas nationwide.
The Department of Health (DOH) has selected PharmaServ as its national cold-chain partner as its “world class” facility can accommodate 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with different temperature requirements.
According to Roque, a total of 24,479,750 COVID-19 vaccine doses have so far been administered in the country. There were 11.39 million Filipinos who are fully vaccinated.
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Sinovac comprises more half of the total vaccine doses delivered to the Philippines, but people are reportedly more inclined to choose Western-made vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna.
This is fueled by reports on alleged vaccine discrimination where some countries only accept Western-made brands while those inoculated with Sinovac have to be quarantined for weeks.
But with the threat of the more transmissible and contagious Delta variant, health experts have been calling on Filipinos to get themselves vaccinated with whatever brand of COVID-19 vaccine is available.