Philippines receives new batch of Sinovac vaccines

MANILA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- China delivered a new batch of Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines to the Philippines on Thursday.

"This is the biggest delivery of Sinovac vaccines since our procurement," Carlito Galvez, the official in charge of the Philippines' vaccine procurement, told reporters.

The fresh shipment of vaccines that the Philippines bought from the Chinese manufacturer arrived before 6:00 p.m. local time at a local airport.

Galvez said the Philippines are happy that Sinovac accommodated their request for an additional batch of vaccines. "We plan to distribute these vaccines to all the 17 regions," he added.

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.

The Philippines has administered over 29 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Nearly 13 million people have been fully vaccinated so far.

The government aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year.

The Philippines is battling the surging COVID-19 infections fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant. It has recorded nearly 1.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 30,881 deaths.