More than 3.4 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were recently donated by the United States (US) to the Philippines.

Through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, US delivered an additional 3,436,290 doses of the Pfizer vaccines which arrived on Thursday, Feb. 10.

It is part of the 1.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses that the US is making available for distribution through COVAX, a global initiative to support equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

To date, the United States has shipped more than 400 million doses to 112 countries around the world, according to the US Embassy in Manila.

As the largest donor to COVAX, the US has facilitated the delivery of more than 69 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Philippines, including over 28.5 million doses provided by the American people.

“We are proud to provide these safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, especially as the Philippine government holds its third national vaccination drive this week. We know that by working as partners to end the pandemic, we are safer together,” said U.S. Embassy in the Philippines Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Heather Variava.

Variava added that they are working closely with Philippine partners to protect public health and support the local pandemic response.

In addition to vaccine donations, the US government has also provided more than Php1.9 billion ($39 million) in COVID-19 assistance to the Philippines to support testing, crucial care, communication campaigns, protection and training of health workers, vaccine deployment, and essential equipment and supplies.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Betheena Unite

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]