MANILA (UPDATE)- The Philippines on Sunday received nearly a million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine from global alliance COVAX Facility.

Some 918,450 doses arrived Saturday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 at 4:15 p.m. via Emirates flight EK 332, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said.

Another batch containing 924,300 doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 jab will arrive on Monday afternoon, it added.

Heather Variava, the Chargé d'Affaires at the US Embassy in Manila said the US has already donated 21 million vaccine doses to the Philippines through the COVAX Facility.

"We're really thanking the US for their act of generosity and compassion for the Philippines and we are very thankful that October, they have already rolled out a lot of vaccines for the deliveries. We are really thankful that our 100 million target will be achieved, considering that we have a faithful ally that really wnated to help us in this time of need," vaccine czar Carlito Galrvez Jr. said.

Sunday's batch raises the country's total received Pfizer vaccine donations to more than 11.7 million. Some 8.1 million out of 40 million doses that government procured from Pfizer have arrived.

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Government aims to inoculate more than 70 million Filipinos in a bid to achieve population protection and reopen the economy safely.

Some 22.8 million have been fully vaccinated while 26 million have received their first shot as of Thursday, according to government data.