Philippines reaches 5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered — official
MANILA, Philippines — Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Sunday said the Philippines has administered over five million doses of COVID-19 vaccine as May nears its end.
Galvez touted over radio dzMM the said figure that came nearly three months since the much-needed inoculation efforts in the country began.
That would be 5,120,023 doses given with 1,189,353 Filipinos complete with shots, against May 25's 4,495,375 doses and 1,029,061 fully vaccinated individuals.
"We'd like to congratulate our mayors in the National Capital Region and other mayors throughout the country for a job well done as we breached the five million mark," Galvez said in Filipino.
The Duterte administration has set a goal of inoculating 50 to 70 million this year, but it has faced criticism along the way to speed up the efforts.
Galvez made no mention of the average daily administered doses, but the figure was at 145,243 on May 25, the last time government reported the vaccine statistics.
On those in priority groups, he said 1.4 million or 93.33% of health workers have been vaccinated, 1,368,836 or 13.38% of senior citizens, and 1,150,196 or 22.7% of those with comorbidities.
The vaccines that have been administered in the country's inoculation drive are: Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Pfizer.
By June, Galvez touted an estimated 10 million doses arriving in the Philippines from various manufacturers.
This would include donations from the World Health Organization-led COVAX Facility, or 2.3 million Pfizer and 2 million AstraZeneca doses.
Another million doses of Sinovac will be delivered by June 6, while the country's first supply of Moderna at 250,000 doses has a set date of June 21, per Galvez.
The inoculation chief added that the Philippines will be among the recipients of excess vaccine supply, some of which could arrive also by June.
The national government has so far secured two official deals for COVID-19 vaccine supplies in the Philippines, one with Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and another with the Serum Institute of India.
Watch this space for bite-sized developments on the vaccines in the Philippines. (Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire says the general population may now get their second booster jab.
"We're just waiting for the release of implementing guidelines, then we'll start rolling out our second booster for the general population," she says. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
Amid questions on vaccines being administered, the Department of Health assures the public all doses are safe and effective as the “process of extending shelf life goes through thorough stability studies.”
“The government ensures that every vaccine that is injected with an extended shelf life has gone through studies, and is still safe and effective against COVID-19,” it adds.
Government must increase vaccination capacity across the Philippines in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the corona virus, Sen. Risa Hontiveros says.
She says local government units and the private sector can work together to put up more vaccination centers and deploy more vaccination teams to get more people inoculated against COVID-19.
"The active COVID cases have nearly doubled in three days. The positivity rate is almost four times the ceiling set by the World Health Organization. Huwag na nating hintayin na sobrang lumala pa ang sitwasyon bago tayo gumawa ng paraan para mapabilis ang ating pagbabakuna."
FDA chief Eric Domingo says that its agency has given emergency approval for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The United States immunized around 900,000 children aged five-to-11 against Covid in the first week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for them, a White House official says Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more have made appointments at pharmacies, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients tells reporters.
"The program is just getting up to full strength," he says, adding most of the shots were given in the last couple of days alone. — AFP
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