NAIA, PASAY CITY (26 JULY 2021) — Another 375,570 doses of American-made Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines arrived in the Philippines on Monday.

Of these vaccines procured by the national government, 272,610 doses were immediately transported to a cold storage facility in Marikina City.

In the meantime, 51,480 doses were earlier delivered in Cebu City, while 51,480 shots will be shipped to Davao City on Tuesday.

National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr said the latest vaccine shipment will be immediately deployed to the NCR and other areas that are experiencing surges in COVID-19 cases.

“These Pfizer vaccines have arrived just in time, as we face the threat of the more contagious COVID-19 Delta variant,” Galvez said.

“In light of the local transmissions of the Delta variant in the country, we are in a race against time. We need to vaccinate as quickly and widely as possible,” he added.

The vaccine czar likewise urged local government units throughout the country to continue upgrading their cold storage capacities or partner with reputable cold chain providers to prevent the wastage of vaccines.

“We encourage our LGUs to level up their cold storage capacities so that they will be able to receive highly-sensitive vaccines such as Pfizer and at the same time, avoid the spoilage of doses that are deployed to them,” he added.

The first shipment of government-procured Pfizer vaccines consisting of 572,770 doses arrived in the country on July 21.

So far, the country has received 3,410,550 Pfizer doses, including the 2,472,210 shots that were sent by the WHO-led COVAX facility in June.

The latest delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech jabs are part of the 40 million doses the Philippine government secured from the US-based pharmaceutical firm after signing a supply agreement last June 20.

With the arrival of the latest shipment of Pfizer vaccines, the Philippines has received a total of 31,360,700 COVID-19 vaccine doses since February.

Health Undersecretary Carolina Vidal-Taiño and DOH officials welcomed the arrival of the vaccines. END