President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday night thanked the Japanese government for the one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it donated to the Philippines.
Tokyo gave 1,124,100 doses to Manila.
The doses arrived at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City Thursday night.
“Let me thank the Government of Japan and the Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for working with the Philippine government in ensuring equitable access to
Covid-19 vaccines,” Duterte said in his speech.
“These more than one million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine will surely go a long way in our quest for herd immunity,” he added.
Duterte said Japan’s charity and cooperation with the Philippines in fighting the pandemic was “an indication of the deep friendship between our two countries.”
Japan also provided the cold chain transport and ancillaries for the doses.
Japan’s vaccine donations were the Philippines’ first AstraZeneca doses that did not come from the Covax facility. The Philippines now has 3,680,100 AstraZeneca doses. John Ezekiel J. Hirro