The Philippines on Tuesday received 2.7 million doses of government-procured Sputnik V vaccines, bringing the country’s total supplies to 108,912,460 doses.
Philippine Airlines Flight PR8623 landed at around 3 p.m. at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 with 1,350,000 doses each of Sputnik V Components I and II.
The shipment was welcomed by National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 head of strategic communications on current operations Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, NTF special adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa, Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlov, Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Jaime Ledda, and Philippine Archipelago International Trading Corporation chair Benito Yap Aw and president Olivia Limpe Aw.
“We urge the local government units to ensure the safety and integrity of all vaccines, considering that we treat vaccines as gold, and it’s very important because we equate these with life,” Mayor said in an interview.
He encouraged those who have yet to get Covid-19 shots to avail of the safe and effective vaccines.
Herbosa also announced the official rollout of pediatric vaccination nationwide this Wednesday, including all children aged 12 to 17 years even without comorbidities.
Based on the data of the National Vaccine Operations Center as of Oct. 31, there are 37, 964 minors who have received the first dose, representing 2.89 percent of the total target population of 1,272,207 children.
Herbosa added the NTF is planning to conduct a national immunization day to administer the current vaccine stockpile of more than 50 million doses. (PNA)
