One million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Chinese manufacturer Sinovac arrived in the Philippines on Thursday night.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. said the doses would be deployed to priority areas including NCR-Plus-8, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo City, Iloilo Province, Aklan and the Ilocos region.

The vaccines arrived a day before Metro Manila, Laguna, Iloilo City and Cagayan de Oro shifted to enhanced community quarantine.

With the recent shipment, the Philippines now has 38,275,800 Covid-19 vaccine doses.

Of the total, 20.5 million shots were from Sinovac.

The shipment came a day before the NCR was placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine, the most stringent quarantine classification imposed by the national government.

As of Aug. 4, more than 22 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide. John Ezekiel J. Hirro