MANILA—The Philippines on Saturday welcomed the arrival of 866,970 COVID-19 vaccine shots manufactured by Pfizer, authorities said.

The National Task Force Against COVID-19 said the government-bought virus jabs arrived about 8:30 p.m. at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 via DHL flight LD456.

The delivery completed the 1,733,940 doses of Pfizer vaccines that the government bought through the Asian Development Bank. On Friday, an initial 866,970 doses arrived in the country.

• Gov't urged to monitor vaccination rates outside Metro Manila as restrictions ease

Based on the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group's monitoring, the country has so far received a total of nearly 109.78 COVID-19 jabs, some 84.7 million shots of which have already been distributed nationwide.

Data showed that at least 28.7 million individuals have been fully immunized from COVID-19 as of Thursday, while 33.7 million are partially vaccinated.

Philippine authorities are eyeing to start booster vaccination among health workers this month.

• FDA says done with studying booster, third doses vs COVID-19 in '1 or 2 weeks'

The Food and Drug Administration earlier this week said Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and Sputnik have applied and sent data for their emergency use authorization to include boosters or third shots.

The Philippines this week began the vaccination of all children aged 12 to 17 in an expansion of its pediatric jab coverage against COVID-19.

COVID-19 cases continued to slow down in recent weeks, the reason Philippine authorities eased lockdown restrictions in the NCR, home to 13 million people, to Alert Level 2.

According to an independent research group, the decline in fresh infections is due to the wider vaccination coverage nationwide.

• Philippines' decline in daily COVID cases due to wide vaccine coverage: OCTA

The Department of Health on Saturday confirmed 2,656 more cases. This is the 5th straight day that new cases counted fewer than 3,000.—With a report from Job Manahan, ABS-CBN News

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