A TOTAL of 29,266 Filipinos were inoculated against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the first week of vaccinations, based on Department of Health (DOH) records.
Citing DOH data as of Sunday, March 7, 2021, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the government has distributed a total of 383,980 doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines to various hospitals.
More than 1.1 million doses of donated Covid-19 vaccines have arrived in the country as of March 7 — 600,000 doses of Sinovac donated by China and 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca donated through the Covax facility.
DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the current stockpile of Covid vaccines in the country is not enough to cover all the health workers.
The vaccines, administered in two doses, will benefit less than 600,000 people.
“We know that we have 1.8 million estimated health care workers from the hospitals down to the community across the different regions of the country. So kulang pa po para makumpleto natin ang ating health workers,” Vergeire said.
She reiterated their appeal to local government officials to respect the prioritization framework, which gives health workers the first priority, followed by senior citizens.
Otherwise, succeeding shipments from the Covax facility would be at risk.
Vergeire said the families of the priority population are also not included yet in this initial phase of vaccination.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said four doses of the Sinovac vaccine were wasted.
“Apat po doon ay parang nabasag o nasira na vaccine. But the rest are okay,” PNP Chief Debold Sinas said in an interview with reporters on Monday.
Sinas said the PNP has already used up all the 1,200 doses of Sinovac vaccine allotted to them in the National Capital Region.
He said vaccination of PNP health workers in the regions was still ongoing. (SunStar Philippines)