Philippines receives more Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines from China

MANILA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- China delivered an additional batch of Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines to the Philippines Saturday morning to support the Southeast Asian country's inoculation campaign against the COVID-19 pandemic.

China has been delivering Sinovac CoronaVac to the Philippines since Feb. 28, and more than 50 percent of the COVID-19 vaccines delivered to the Philippines come from China.

It was the first to provide coronavirus vaccines to the Philippines, allowing the Southeast Asian 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 against COVID-19 so far. The government aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year.

The Philippines now has over 1.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 31,198 deaths. On Friday, it recorded 17,231 new COVID-19 infections, the highest ever daily tally since the outbreak began in January last year.