Philippines to Receive 5.6 Million Vaccine Doses This Quarter

(Bloomberg) --

The Philippine government said at least 5.6 million coronavirus vaccine doses produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca Plc are expected to arrive in the country within the first quarter.

The country will receive a total of 9.4 million doses from the two pharmaceutical makers by the second quarter, it said in an emailed statement Sunday, citing a letter from Aurelia Nguyen, managing director of the World Health Organization-backed Covax initiative.

Covax aims to supply vaccines to poorer countries.

Many local authorities in the Philippines and the private sector are prepared for the vaccine roll-out, with necessary vaccination sites, cold storage equipment and personnel, the government said.

The Philippines plans to secure 148 million doses to inoculate 70 million people this year to achieve herd immunity, it said.

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