The Philippines received an additional batch of the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines purchased from China on Thursday morning as the country is ramping up vaccination efforts amid a continuous surge of COVID-19 infections.
According to the Philippines' Department of Health (DOH), the government has administered more than 3.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of May 18, primarily to frontline healthcare workers, the elderly, and those with underlying medical conditions.
The country aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year to achieve herd immunity.
China donated the first batch of Sinovac CoronaVac to the Philippines on Feb. 28, allowing the Southeast Asian country to kick off its vaccination drive on March 1.
The Philippines has reported a total of 1,159,071 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday, including 19,507 deaths.
