MANILA — China delivered an additional batch of Sinovac CoronaVac vaccines to the Philippines on Sept 13 to support the Southeast Asian country's COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

"We thank China and Sinovac for the steady delivery of vaccines," Carlito Galvez, an official in charge of the country's vaccine procurement, told reporters at the airport.

Galvez said the Philippines expects more vaccine deliveries from Sinovac in the coming months. "The newly delivered vaccines will be distributed to areas with surging cases," he added.

China has been delivering COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines since Feb 28. It was the first to provide coronavirus vaccines to the Southeast Asian country, allowing it to kick off its vaccination drive on March 1.

The Philippines has administered over 31 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Around 16 million people have been fully vaccinated so far. The government aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year.

To date, Galvez said the Philippines has received around 56 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from different vaccine makers. China remains the biggest vaccine supplier.

The Philippines has reported a total of 2,227,367 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Sept 12, including 35,145 deaths.