2.28 Million Doses of Pfizer Vaccine Arrived in the Philippines
The second batch of the Pfizer vaccine arrived on 10 June. This happened as COVID-19 cases continue to spike in the country.
This shipment, which came from the global initiative COVAX facility, amounted to almost 2.28 million doses. According to the COVID-19 National Task Force, the vaccines reached Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 at about 8:30 in the evening.
With this initiative, the World Health Organization (WHO) is convinced that more Filipinos will be encouraged to trust in vaccines.
In fact, WHO Country Representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said, “We believe that with the introduction of the Pfizer vaccine, people who had some degree of hesitancy would have confidence because the Pfizer vaccines have a good track record.”
Furthermore, he continued, “We believe those sections of people who have some apprehensions about receiving COVID vaccine will be confident enough to accept the Pfizer vaccine.”
Abeyasinghe was actually referring to the success rate of Pfizer. The Department of Health said that the Pfizer vaccine is 95% efficacious.
Also, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III expressed his gratitude to the COVAX facility for the donations. He said that the government would continue to augment the public’s trust in the national vaccination program.
To make sure that the country keeps its COVAX allocations, the government has to follow the priority list. Thus, the initial beneficiaries of the first batch, which contains 193,050 doses, will be Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao.
As for the next Pfizer vaccine arrival, people can expect it in the next two months, said WHO.
