Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 16)— The country has received over two million pediatric COVID-19 shots from Australia, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday, as the government aims to boost the vaccination drive for children.
In a statement, the DOH said the Australian government — with the help of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) — donated an initial batch of 2,280,000 Pfizer doses.
“This is part of the six million total pediatric Pfizer vaccine doses to be donated to the Philippine government by the end of this year in support of the COVID-19 recovery of Filipinos, including children who have now started going back to school,” the agency noted.
The DOH added that an additional 720,000 doses will arrive within the same week. No further details about the delivery of the remaining vaccines were provided.
“With this new batch of vaccines, we hope that more parents will get their children vaccinated against COVID-19 for their protection and continued safe learning,” the department said.
Around 72.8 million Filipinos — including roughly 4.9 million children — are already fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to latest government data.
