MANILA (UPDATE)- The Philippines on Tuesday received 793,900 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine donated by the government of Germany, authorities said.

The additional supply, coursed through the vaccine-sharing platform COVAX facility, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 past 4 p.m. via Emirates Flight EK332.

This is the second batch of donated jabs from Germany. The first batch of more than 844,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the same brand arrived last month.

German Ambassador to the Philippines Anke Reiffenstuel said the donation is "an important sign of solidarity and partnership" between her country and Manila.

“I am glad Germany can contribute to the Philippine effort because a responsible and comprehensive vaccination is the only way to succeed in overcoming the pandemic,” Reiffenstuel said.

Vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. thanked Germany for the donation, and assured the World Health Organization the country will work to raise its COVID vaccine coverage among the elderly population to 70 percent this month.

He issued an appeal after some local governments lamented the unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines when supply was still arriving in trickles, which gave those at the lower end of the priority list shorter period to inoculate their target population from the time local vaccine supply stabilized.

“We are appealing to the LGUs not to make any more alibis. Just move on and carry on the task given to you by the President to ramp up vaccination,” Galvez said.

“We are really, really appealing for your sense of urgency. We are in the midst of the pandemic. We need to move faster. We are fighting with an unseen enemy. There is some sort of cycle that after two months, the (COVID) cases will rise again,” he added.

The fresh delivery raises the country's total received vaccine doses to 114.24 million, data collated by the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (IRG) showed. The Philippines received its first vaccine supply on Feb. 28 this year.

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Nearly half or 44.5 million doses were from China's Sinovac, while 32.1 million were from Pfizer. The other vaccine candidates being used in the Philippines are those of Moderna, Sinopharm, Gamaleya Institute, and Johnson & Johnson.

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Philippine authorities are ramping up the country's inoculation program to reach the target 1.5 million administered shots daily.

They believe this could help achieve the ambitious 70 percent vaccination coverage within the year, even though a health official had said there is a possibility this might not be reached.

Government data showed that it was only able to administer 697,025 shots in the past seven days (Nov. 1 to 7), only over a third of the target.

With less than two months left before the year ends, the Philippines has fully vaccinated only 29.8 million individuals and partially jabbed 35.1 million others as of Monday.

Galvez expects some 10 to 15 million virus shots will be administered during the proposed 3-day national COVID-19 vaccination drive on Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

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The widening vaccination coverage in the country has been cited as among reasons for the decline in new infections observed since last month.

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