Press Release - PASIG CITY --- The Philippines has breached the six million-mark in terms of total anti-COVID vaccine shots administered nationwide.
National Task Force against COVID 19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr announced that as of June 7, the government has already administered a total of 6,096,208 jabs to priority groups A1 (healthcare workers), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities), and A4 (economic frontliners).
Meanwhile, Galvez said 1,604,260 individuals have been fully vaccinated or have received both doses.
"Despite the reduced output in the country’s 7-day moving average due to a lack of vaccine supply in late May and early June, the Philippines was still able to hit the six million mark ahead of its initial target and is expected to gain further momentum in the coming weeks with the arrival of more vaccine shipments," he said.
"This shows that the vaccination sites being run by our local government units are capable of vaccinating at an accelerated rate if they are provided with sufficient vaccine supplies. We expect to further ramp up our inoculation once our partners in the private sector will roll-out their vaccination campaign,” Galvez added.
According to the vaccine czar, a total of 11,058,000 doses are expected to arrive this June wherein 5.5 million will come from Sinovac, a million of Sputnik V, 250,000 doses from Moderna, and 2,280,00 of Pfizer-BioNTech and 2,028,000 of Astrazeneca from the COVAX facility.
Initial tranches of these shipments have already been confirmed. Sinovac’s one million CoronaVac doses arrived last Sunday, while another million doses are expected to arrive separately on June 10 and 17.
COVAX has confirmed the delivery of a large shipment of Pfizer doses on June 10 and 11 with 2,280,000 doses. COVAX also announced the delivery of Astrazeneca doses to the country in the third week of June, with 2,028,000 doses, though schedules might still change depending on the availability of supplies from the facility.
Moderna has also confirmed its delivery on June 21 of which 55,000 doses will be allocated to the private sector and 195,000 doses for the government.
Flexibility on vaccine rollout
As the Philippines begins to inoculate economic frontliners and essential workers under priority group A4, local government units (LGUs) are given the flexibility to implement the vaccination for this sector due to its huge population.
However, Galvez stressed all LGUs must work under the supervision of their respective Department of Health regional directors and comply with the guidelines set by the national government.
“The guidelines for the vaccination of A4 and A5 are already in place. It gives the LGUs the leeway to implement it. In case they have enough vaccines, hindi na sisinuhin, basta may maibigay na ID,” he said during an online interview on Tuesday, June 8.
“Pero once kulang ang vaccine, based on protocol, uunahin nila ang 40 years old and above,” Galvez added.
This policy, he emphasized, is based in science, as experts noted that the population belonging to the 40 and above age bracket are more vulnerable to the disease.
The vaccine czar added that simplifying the guidelines in the vaccine rollout such as the prioritization based on age and expansion of the definition of A4 category to include all workers from private, government, as well as informal sector and self-employed, will help ensure the efficient implementation of the program.
Vaccine rollout timeline
Galvez said the government is eyeing to vaccinate 25-30 million individuals with the first dose by end of August.
He is confident that the country will be able to administer the first shot for all individuals under the A4 category by mid-September or early October.
In the expanded definition of the A4 category, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said that a total of 35.5 million Filipinos belong to this category.
Approximately 13 million workers are from NCR+8 (Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao), while 22.5 million are from other parts of the country.
However Galvez explained that the 35.5 million individuals under priority group A4 are “overlapping” with other priority groups A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities).
The vaccine czar said this target will be feasible, as vaccine deliveries are expected to arrive in bigger volumes beginning this month.
More than 10 million doses are arriving this June, 11 million doses in July, 17 million doses in August, and 15 to 20 million doses in September.
Galvez noted that with the steady arrival of these vaccines, the government can gradually and substantially increase its innolucations per day.
The government, he added, is preparing to increase the number of vaccination sites to 5,000 in the country as vaccine supplies increase with the capacity to administer atleast 100 jabs per site.
Galvez pointed out this move aims to increase the nation’s daily vaccination rate and quickly reach its target of administered jabs.
These sites include mega vaccination centers that can accommodate at least one thousand individuals at a time, regular vaccination sites that can inoculate 300 to 500 persons a day, and community vaccination centers that can administer 100 jabs daily.
Galvez said that LGUs will be assisted by the private sector in the setting up of these mega vaccination centers. Other national agencies like the AFP, PNP and PCG can also help with the existence of their hospital units with significant medical personnel from their ranks.
He said that arenas, gymnasium, hotels, malls, and other private-owned facilities are now being converted into vaccination centers that can be used by LGUs and private sector in vaccinating their own people and contituents.
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