PASAY CITY — The second batch of Pfizer vaccines consisting of 293,670 doses donated by the Australian government in partnership with UNICEF arrived here on Monday night, February 21.

The Philippines received the first shipment of 1,138,410 Pfizer vaccine doses donated by Australia last February 18.

“We would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to Australia for this COVID-19 assistance,” Department of Foreign Affairs Office of Asian and Pacific Affairs Executive Director Maria Anna De Vera-Schinazi told reporters following the arrival of the vaccines.

“Australia has been a good partner to the Philippines and has helped us in our COVID-19 response,” De Vera-Schinazi added.

To date, the Philippines has received a total of 225,117,030 COVID-19 vaccines doses from various manufacturers since February 2021.

For his part, Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, head of the Sub-Task Group on Current Operations of the National Task Force Against COVID-19's Strategic Communications, said these vaccines are crucial in the nation’s fight against COVID-19, especially with the presence of the Omicron variant.

“Malaking tulong po ito sa ating kampanya laban sa COVID-19 lalo na ngayon sa Omicron,” Mayor said.
According to the NTF official, there are now 62,506,113 fully vaccinated Filipinos who represent 80.03% of the country’s target population.

“Muli, nananawagan po kami sa ating mga magulang, sa lahat po ng wala pa pong bakuna na tayo po ay magpabakuna na at napakarami na nating bakuna na dumating sa ating bansa, lalong lalo na ang kabataan na may edad lima hanggang labing-isa,” he said.

“Ito lamang po ang ating paraan para ang ating kabataan ay makabalik na sa kanilang mga paaralan, at makita nila ang kanilang mga kaklase at muling maging normal ang ating buhay,” Mayor added.

As of February 20, a total of 395,679 children aged 5 to 11 have received the reformulated Pfizer COVID-19 jab. (National Task Force against COVID-19)