MANILA - The Philippines on Friday morning accepted more than 3.6 million COVID-19 shots from Moderna and AstraZeneca bought by the government and the private sector.

The 2,948,000 doses of Moderna vaccine doses and the 698,600 AstraZeneca shots arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 around 9:35 a.m. via China Airlines flight CI701.

• READ: Omicron vs COVID-19 vaccines: What more do we need to know?

Of the nearly 3 million Moderna jabs, 2,102,000 doses were bought by the government while 846,000 doses were bought by the private sector, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said.

The AstraZeneca shots were also bought by the private sector, it added.

This brings the country's total vaccine deliveries to over 154.3 million, data collated by the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group showed.

National Task Force against COVID-19 Special Adviser Dr. Teodoro Herbosa urged eligible Filipinos for vaccination or booster shots to already get theirs amid the threat of the more transmissible omicron variant.

• READ: 10.25 million people jabbed during initial run of National Vaccination Day

He added that walk-ins would be allowed during the second round of the country's National COVID-19 Vaccination Days slated from Dec. 15 to Dec. 17.

“Pwede lahat mag-walk-in. Ang instruction sa aming vaccine centers…i-register sila. ‘Pag dumating sila, may area for the walk-ins… Walang pauuwin during the national vaccination days na hindi nababakunahan,” Herbosa said.

(Everyone can walk-in. Our instructions in our vaccine centers were their registration. They have areas for walk-ins. Nobody will be sent home during our vaccination days.)

"The threat of Omicron is real. Nakita n’yo naman ‘yung increase of omicron in the South African countries, almost every day nagdo-double ang numbers nila and they’ve reached 24 percent test positivity... Parang it’s milder, but still people get infected, highly transmissible," he added.

(Maybe you saw the rise of omicron cases in South African countries. Almost every day, their numbers doubled and they already reached the 24 percent positivity. It's milder but people still get infected.)

Herbosa is also hoping that Filipinos can better celebrate the holidays this year, as the country's vaccine drive helped in lowering the number of fresh COVID-19 cases.

"The best defense is still getting your vaccines, the first two doses, and if you’ve been vaccinated June or earlier get already your booster doses,” he said.

"You can see the effects of the good vaccination campaign in NCR, our (COVID) numbers have remained steady, very low, and I think we can celebrate Christmas."

The country now has partially vaccinated at least 54 million individuals against COVID-19, while 39.5 million are fully vaccinated as of Thursday.

The number of those fully vaccinated against the virus accounts for 51.28 percent of the target, ABS-CBN's researchers said.

— Reports from Vivienne Gulla, ABS-CBN News

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