Gov’t aiming for herd immunity in Metro Manila by November 27 — Galvez
MANILA, Philippines — The government is looking to inoculate 120,000 people against COVID-19 daily in the National Capital Region in a bid to achieve herd immunity in the country's outbreak epicenter by November.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said this Saturday in an interview with DZMM's Teleradyo, adding that the government hopes to meet its 120,000 daily vaccination target by June and increase it by as much as double in July.
"What we are pushing for this May is to have 2 million vaccinations and also at least this coming June, we [are targeting to] to have 4 million vaccinated and July onwards to have...1 million to 2 million per week as our target," he said partially in Filipino.
Asked if the government will be able to achieve its target of vaccinating 70 million people by year-end to achieve herd immunity, Galvez said the government is now looking to "at least" achieve "herd containment" and "herd immunity" in NCR Plus, Metro Davao and Metro Cebu by then.
In NCR, he added, the goal is to reach herd immunity by November 27.
In a pre-recorded message aired Friday during the launch of the private sector's Ingat Angat Bakuna Lahat campaign in support of the government's vaccine rollout, Galvez said the Philippines has received a total of 7,779,050 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of May 14.
Galvez said the country is expecting another 500,000 jabs from China's Sinovac Biotech, 1.3 million Sputnik V vaccines from Russia and 2.2 million Pfizer jabs from the COVAX facility this month.
Another 10,050,000 doses are expected to arrive in June, Galvez said, which would bring the total number of vaccines to 21,829,050.
He also announced during the event the signing of a term sheet that would secure 40 million doses of the coronavirus shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech with the delivery date still to be determined.
As of May 12, however, the vaccine czar said the Philippines has only administered some 2.6 million doses, fully vaccinating 565,816 people and giving over 2 million their first shot.
— Bella Perez-Rubio
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