Philippines receives more Sinovac vaccines from China

MANILA, July 17 (Xinhua) -- China delivered an additional batch of Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines to the Philippines on Saturday morning to support the Southeast Asian country's campaign against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fresh shipment of CoronaVac vaccines procured by Philippine government from China's Sinovac Biotech arrived at the airport in Manila around 8:00 a.m. local time.

China was the first to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the Philippines. It donated the first batch of CoronaVac to Manila on Feb. 28, allowing the country to kick off its vaccination drive on March 1. As of Saturday, China had been the biggest supplier of COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines.

According to a nationwide survey published in May, Filipinos prefer China's CoronaVac vaccine over other COVID-19 vaccines, with 39 percent of the 1,200 adult Filipinos placing it as the first choice.

The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) said the country has administered more than 13.8 million doses of vaccines, with more than 3.9 million people having been fully vaccinated so far. The DOH aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year.

The Philippines has reported a total of 1,496,328 confirmed cases as of Friday, including 26,476 deaths.