PH receives over 188,000 additional Pfizer vaccine doses from US via COVAX facility

The United States has delivered an additional 188,370 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines on Thursday, Sept. 2, as part of its worldwide effort to help the country in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila said the vaccines were delivered directly to the Philippines by the US government via the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, a global initiative to support equitable distribution of COVID-19 jabs.

This latest delivery is the U.S. government’s third bilateral vaccine donation to the Philippines, following its July delivery of 3.2 million Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccines and August delivery of 3 million Moderna vaccine doses.

Those who led the welcoming of the Pfizer vaccines at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport were USAID Philippines Office of Health Director Michelle Lang-Alli, Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, head of the National Task Force Against COVID-19's sub-task group on current operations, and other stakeholders.

To date, the Philippines has already received more than 13.4 million vaccine doses through the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), a global initiative run by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to support equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The United States is the largest monetary contributor to Gavi, with nearly Php200 billion ($4 billion) provided to the Alliance.

Throughout the pandemic, the US has been working closely with Philippine stakeholders to protect public health and support the local response to COVID-19. Washington’s COVID-19 assistance to the Philippines amounts to over Php1.38 billion ($27.5 million).