President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed the arrival of 2,805,000 Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine doses on Monday night.
In his speech during the arrival of the doses, Duterte thanked Russia for its commitment to help the Philippines amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Let me express my gratitude to the Russian government for the continued supply of life-saving Covid-19 vaccines to the Philippines,” he said.
The latest batch of Sputnik V doses was the biggest the Philippines has ever received from the Russian manufacturer.
The Sputnik V doses were procured by the government, according to the National Task Force Against Covid-19.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the vaccines would help the country reach its goal of inoculating at least 54 million Filipinos by year-end.
“These Sputnik V vaccines will benefit more than 1.4 million individuals, and will enable the country to significantly scale up its vaccination output so that we can achieve our goal of inoculating at least 54 million Filipinos with at least one dose this November and completely inoculate them before year-end,” he said.
The country has received 113,451,500 Covid-19 vaccine doses from various manufacturers since February. John Ezekiel J. Hirro