PH administers over 100M COVID vaccine doses amid donations

The Philippines' COVID-19 vaccine drive has administered over 100 million doses as of mid-December 2021.

Donations from countries like the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and other European countries, as well as the COVAX global facility, have added at least 63 million doses to the country's stockpile.

This brings the total vaccine supply to 210 million doses, surpassing initial government purchases of 148 million doses.

Despite the significant number of doses administered, it is not yet enough to achieve herd immunity against the evolving virus.

As of December 17, 2021, 43.3 million Filipinos were fully vaccinated.

The country received over 1.16 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on December 17, 2021, and another 1,062,100 doses from Germany through the COVAX facility on December 19, 2021.

Earlier on December 17, the Philippines received 1,961,300 doses of Moderna vaccine donated by the German government.

These donations were intended to help boost the country's target of achieving 54 million fully vaccinated Filipinos by the end of the year.

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. urged the public to get inoculated due to sufficient vaccine supply.

However, the devastation of Typhoon Odette may cause delays in vaccine distribution and vaccination efforts in affected areas.