MANILA -- The country received another 1,546,200 AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility on Saturday, October 30.

The latest shipment brings the total COVAX-donated vaccines to the Philippines to 25.8 million doses.

Clare Bea, chief of the US Embassy’s Environment, Science, Technology and Health Unit, said that out of the more than 25 million doses donated by COVAX to the country, more than 16 million doses were provided by the American government.

“It’s a great pleasure to know that we’re contributing to save lives in the Philippines and in our partner countries abroad,” Bea said.

“We are very grateful to the financial contributions of the different countries to the COVAX facility and we are sure that this will help the Philippines in its fight against COVID-19,” Behzad Noubary, UNICEF Deputy Representative, said.

Noubary reaffirmed UNICEF's continued commitment to help countries such as the Philippines to have equitable access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.

He noted the Philippines is the third largest recipient of COVAX-donated vaccines.

For his part, NTF special adviser Dr. Teodoro Herbosa thanked UNICEF and the United States for their generous donation.

According to Herbosa, the National Vaccine Operation Center has recommended the need to increase the number of vaccination centers and vaccinators so that vaccinations can be conducted in 24-hour shifts.

The NVOC, he said, has also proposed other creative approaches so that local government units can continue to increase their daily vaccination rate.

Earlier in the day, over 1 million AstraZeneca doses donated by the Japanese government arrived in the Philippines, bringing the total AstraZeneca jabs delivered to the country to 2,611,800 doses.

As of October 30, a total of 104,113,480 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the country since February. (National Task Force Against COVID-19)