Galvez: Gov't targeting 500K daily vaccinations
MANILA, Philippines — To achieve herd immunity in metropolitan areas and six other provinces in Calabarzon and Central Luzon by November 27, the government must reach a target of 500,000 daily vaccinations or 3 million per week, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said.
Galvez said this in a prerecorded meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte and the pandemic task force aired Tuesday as he outlined the government's "focus and expand" strategy which entails concentrating vaccination in the country's COVID-19 hotspots.
These areas, namely Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao and six other provinces in Regions III and IV, he noted, also make up 60% of the country's economy.
"The supply we need to sustain 500,000 jabs per day is...15 million per month," Galvez said in a presentation delivered in Filipino.
"In Metro Manila, we need 3.3 [million vaccines per month]. In Davao, we computed, and what we need is 450,000 per month. Cebu also needs 350,000 a month."
However, the country is only set to receive some 11.5 million vaccines in May and over 10 million in June.
In addition to the 3.75 million vaccines that have already arrived this month, the country is expecting 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.
The over 10 million shots expected in June will be coming from AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Moderna and the Gamaleya Research Institute.
In a separate prerecorded message aired Friday during the launch of the private sector's Ingat Angat Bakuna Lahat campaign, Galvez said the government is looking to vaccinate 120,000 people against coronavirus daily by June and increase this rate by as much as double in July.
The following day, on May 15, a total of 120,529 jabs were administered nationwide, the highest number recorded since the country's vaccination program kicked off earlier this year, according to data presented by the vaccine czar.
He also said the country has received some 7.77 million vaccines, 7.14 million of which have already been deployed.
But as of May 16, the government has only administered a total of 3,001,875 shots, fully vaccinating 719,602 people and giving over 2.28 million their first dose.
— Bella Perez-Rubio
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