MANILA, Philippines — Government figures on Wednesday showed 514,000 Filipinos now fully vaccinated for COVID-19, but the daily average is still a concern two months since inoculation efforts in the country began.
The Department of Health said 6.4 million of the 7.76 million doses that the Philippines has had been distributed as of May 11.
Of the number, some 2.5 million doses have since been administered in 3,688 vaccination sites across the country, with 2.02 million Filipinos receiving their first shot.
Three regions had the most number of doses: Metro Manila with 2.5 million, Central Luzon with 631,620, and Calabarzon with 446,180.
Most of these areas form the 'NCR Plus' or the capital region with Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan. Government has sought to allocate more jabs in the quarantine bubble to arrest the surge in infections.
Fast-tracking inoculations
The country now has a seven-day average of 67,780 daily vaccinations, up by nearly a half from the 36,491 last week. Officials are targeting to inoculate 50 to 70 million this year in a bid to reach herd immunity.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez has repeatedly touted that the Philippines is among countries in Southeast Asia leading in its rollout.
But many have sought to point out that his assertion fails to acknowledge the number of vaccinations done per population.
Dr. Tony Leachon, an ex-government advisor, said inoculation efforts remain quite slow despite the country's supply of AstraZeneca jabs expiring by June and July.
"I don't think the challenge will be the supply, but the vaccine administration and acceptance of the people," he said in an exchange with Philstar.com.
Leachon added that public awareness on the jabs should be improved, along with good supply chain management, to vaccinate more people "at the fastest time possible and least amount of wastage."
Some of the solutions he proposed to avoid the AstraZeneca doses from going to waste is to identify local governments' capacity to administer the jabs, and have them commit to a target number.
Villages and barangays should also be allowed to set up vaccination sites done with their LGUs that can be more accessible.
"Local communities can provide the venue and the manpower for organizing, promoting, encoding, and screening," Leachon said. "While the LGU, through the help of DOH, provides the health workers to do the vaccination, inventory, and waste management."
Four vaccine shipments have been delivered to the country this May, or the first 15,000 doses of Sputnik V, 1.5 million Sinovac doses, as well as the more than 2 million AstraZeneca and 193,050 Pfizer doses from the COVAX facility.