In photo from Philippine News Agency: DOST Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña (2nd from right, in polo barong) joins other government officials in welcoming the 193,050 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines on 10 May 2021 via DHL Plane Flight LD457 at the NAIA Terminal 2 in Pasay City.
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña, together with other Government officials and representatives of International Organizations welcomed the arrival of the 193,050 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines on 10 May 2021 via DHL Plane Flight LD457 in NAIA Terminal 2, Pasay City.
The Pfizer vaccines are part of the allocation for the Philippines under the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility. This first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will be distributed in the National Capital Region, Cebu City, Davao City, and other major cities that can handle the required temperature of -70 °C.
Secretary de la Peña was joined by Cabinet Secretary Carlo Nograles, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, UN Resident Coordinator Gustavo Gonzalez, and representatives from the US Embassy and Pfizer-Philippines.
The COVAX Facility is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator which is a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. COVAX is co-led by GAVI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO. As early as July 2020, DOST, as the chair of the sub-Technical Working Group on Vaccine Development, has recommended to the Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19 the participation of the Philippines in the COVAX Facility.