The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) urged all local government units (LGUs) to be ready to receive and handle the arrival of 40 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to the country, the agency said on Tuesday.

'This is a major development in our National Deployment and Vaccination Plan. I call upon all LGUs and local chief executives to start their preparation to be able to properly receive these vaccines as early as now. Time is of the essence and we must do our duty to safely bring the vaccines to the people,' said the DILG Secretary Eduardo Año in a statement.