PASAY CITY -- The Philippines on Wednesday, November 24, received 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the Australian government.

Australian Ambassador Steven Robinson, NTF Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III welcomed the arrival of the COVID-19 jabs.

According to Robinson, today’s shipment is the first batch out of the 3.6 million AstraZeneca doses the Australian government is donating to the Philippines.

“Overall, we’ll have 3.6 million doses coming in to the Philippines -- 2.2 million doses from Australia’s domestic supply and 1.4 million doses coming through UNICEF to the Philippines,” the ambassador said.

Aside from the COVID-19 vaccines, Australia also donated 100 oxygen concentrators to the country last month.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III thanked the Australian government and its people for the assistance they have provided to the Philippines.

“This is substantial in the light of the fact that we are rolling out our [COVID-19] booster shots,” Duque said.

Galvez said the bulk of the donated AstraZeneca vaccines will be used in the three-day National Vaccination Days to be held from November 29 to December 1.

“These will be used maybe as the first dose, second dose or booster,” the vaccine czar said.

Since February, a total of 135,161,900 COVID-19 vaccine doses from various manufacturers have arrived in the country.

Health Usec. Ma. Carolina Vidal-Taiño, Foreign Affairs Asec. Nathaniel Imperial, and Astrazeneca head of government affairs Victor Sepulveda also witnessed the arrival of AstraZeneca vaccines. (National Task Force Against COVID-19)