Vaccine recipients exceed 1M in Philippines

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THE number of individuals who have received a dose of a coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine in the Philippines has breached one million, Malacañang announced Monday, April 12, 2021.

As of April 11, or 42 days since the vaccination campaign began in the country, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said a total of 1,007,356 individuals have received the first dose.

They comprise 0.93 percent of the Philippines’ 108 million population and 1.43 percent of the government’s 70 million target for 2021.

Of this number, 132,288 have also received the second dose, bringing the total number of doses administered in the country to 1,139,644, or 45 percent of the 2,525,600 million doses delivered earlier.

The country’s vaccine supply was boosted by the arrival Sunday of another shipment of 500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine, the second batch of government-procured vaccines against Covid-19.

Of the 1,139,644 total doses administered, Roque said 965,169 went to health frontliners under Priority Group A1.

Of these, 848,986 were given as first dose while 116,183 were given as second dose.

Health frontliners in the National Capital Region (NCR) comprised the biggest group of vaccine recipients.

As of April 11, Roque said roughly 225,000 health frontliners in the NCR received their first dose. Of this number, about 43,000 have also been given their second dose.

Other recipients of the first dose were 95,000 in Central Luzon, 92,000 in Calabarzon, 72,000 in Central Visayas, 49,000 in Davao Region, 44,000 in Soccsksargen, 39,000 in Ilocos, 37,000 in Northern Mindanao and 35,000 in Western Visayas.

In the NCR alone, the total doses administered reached 280,569 as of 6 p.m. Sunday, consisting of 269,814 first dose and 10,755 second dose.

The cities with the highest number of recipients are Manila, Quezon, Caloocan, Pasig, Taguig, Marikina, Mandaluyong, Muntinlupa and Makati.

Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, Roque said the Philippines ranks third in terms of doses administered, after Indonesia’s 14.7 million doses and Singapore’s 1.7 million doses.

Myanmar has vaccinated around 1.0 million while Malaysia has administered 0.9 million doses.

Thailand and Cambodia have administered 0.5 million and o.4 million doses, respectively, Roque said.

The Philippines has received a total of 3.035 million doses of vaccines, consisting of 2.5 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine and 525,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Both Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines are administered in two doses. The Sinovac inactivated vaccine called CoronaVac is given 28 days apart while the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed using chimpanzee adenoviral vector, is given 12 weeks apart.

All available AstraZeneca vaccines, which were donated through the Covax facility, were administered as first dose.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Sinovac vaccine for adults 18 to 59 years old. On April 7, FDA also approved Sinovac for senior citizens aged 60 and above.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for adults 18 years and older, although a physician's advice and supervision are required for those 56 years old and older. The FDA, however, has suspended inoculations using the AstraZeneca vaccine for those under 60 years old in light of reports of blood clots with low platelets in Europe.

Under the government's national deployment and vaccination program, health frontliners under Priority Group A1 enjoy first priority. The government, however, has allowed the simultaneous inoculation of senior citizens under Group A2 and persons with comorbidities under Group A3. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)

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