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MANILA, March 4 (Reuters) - The Philippines has received its
first delivery of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots,
secured through the vaccine-sharing COVAX facility, its health
ministry said on Thursday.
The country hopes to get a total of 4.58 million doses of
AstraZeneca shots via COVAX by May, and the newly arrived
487,200 doses are the initial shipment.
The first batch of AstraZeneca doses will add to the
Southeast Asian country's stock of 600,0000 Sinovac vaccines
that China donated, and which Manila used to launch its
inoculation campaign on Monday.
"With every dose that we will administer, we are inching
towards a safer recovery from this pandemic," Health Secretary
Francisco Duque said in a statement.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said he would lift
restrictions on businesses and public transport in the capital
Manila once his government has secured 20 to 40 million doses of
COVID-19 shots.
The Philippines, which is battling one of the worst
coronavirus outbreaks in Asia, has reported more than 580,000
COVID-19 cases overall, including infections caused by the
British and South African variants. It has recorded more than
12,404 deaths.
It aims this year to inoculate 70 million of its 108 million
people to achieve herd immunity and reopen an economy that in
2020 saw its worst contraction on record, due largely to tight
restrictions on movement in place since mid-March.
(Reporting by Karen Lema;
Editing by Bernadette Baum)
