Covid-19 vaccines provided by Brunei have arrived in the Philippines

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

The government of Brunei Darussalam donated a portion of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which arrived in the country on Wednesday, with a second shipment due "soon."

Teodoro "Ted" Herbosa, Special Advisor to the National Task Force Against Covid-19 (NTF), accepted 2,000 of the 20,000 pills supplied by Brunei at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.

"This is simply a piece of a larger donation that will be arriving soon," Herbosa explained.

 

Only Pfizer and Moderna have been granted emergency use permission (EUA) for 12 to 17-year-old recipients, he claimed, so the AstraZeneca vaccinations will be supplied to the broader public.

Pfizer vaccination doses are expected to arrive on Thursday and Friday, according to Herbosa.

To date, he said, 92.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been given to the Philippines, with 32 percent of the population—or around 24 million Filipinos—having received their first dose and 28 million having received their second.

 

"Ang Metro Manila maganda na ang numbers (Metro Manila has fantastic figures) —80 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, and 90 percent has received at least one dose," Herbosa said.

He stated that there is no longer a shortage of Covid-19 vaccinations, since more are likely to arrive in the next months.

"Ang ating difficulty ngayon (What our current problem is) is ensuring that immunizations are distributed to all areas, including the general public, children, and, of course, areas where medyo malalayo na" (that are far away).
We're having some storage issues because this necessitates cold storage," Herbosa explained.

 

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Edited October 21, 2021 by ASEAN NOW Content Team