The UK’s donation of 415,040 AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrived in the Philippines on Monday.
The doses landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at around 4:30 p.m.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and UK Ambassador to the Philippines Daniel Pruce welcomed the arrival of the vaccines.
“We have a very important shared objective in ensuring maximum access to vaccines and making sure that once vaccines are delivered, that they are deployed and administered effectively,” Pruce said.
The doses were part of the 100 million vaccine shots Britain has pledged to donate globally by June 2022.
“We’re doing this to help the most vulnerable, but also because we know we won’t be safe until everyone is safe,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.
Of the 100 million doses Britain has pledged to donate, 80 million will go to the Covax facility, which has donated more than 10 million doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines to the Philippines.
The remaining 20 million doses will be given directly to countries.
The Philippines has administered 20,863,544 Covid-19 vaccine doses as of Aug. 1. John Ezekiel J. Hirro