Philippines gets 3 million more procured Sinovac doses

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has received three million more doses of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine, which added to the national government's procured stockpile. 

Flight PR361 of flagship carrier Philippine Airlines which carried the jabs landed at the NAIA Terminal 2 in Parañaque on the evening of November 11. 

It came on top of an earlier shipment of also three million Sinovac doses this week that was purchased by government, too. 

Dr. Maria Paz Corrales, a medical consultant of the National Task Force against COVID-19, said they have sought the help of the armed forces, the Office of Civil Defense, as well as the private sector to fast track the delivery of the vaccines. 

Sinovac remains the most number of COVID-19 vaccines procured and delivered to the Philippines. 

The delivery on November 11 brought the stockpile of the jabs to 50.50 million doses, per a Philstar.com monitoring. 

Of that, 47.60 million doses were purchased by the Duterte administration, two million donated by Beijing, 500,000 procured by the private sector and 400,000 by local governments. 

The government is targeting to vaccinate up to 77.13 million this year in bid to achieve population protection. 

Latest data showed there are now 30.18 million Filipinos are now fully vaccinated for COVID-19, while 36.90 million have received a first dose. 

For the overall population of the country, that equates to 28.26% now complete with their shots.