ABOUT 500,000 more doses of CoronaVac, the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Sinovac, will be delivered to the Philippines on Thursday, May 20, said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.
“Mayroon tayong karagdagang 500,000 vaccines from Sinovac na darating po sa May 20,” he said, as he announced in a press briefing Tuesday, May 18, that the country has breached the three million mark in terms of the number of Covid-19 vaccines administered.
Galvez also said that on May 15, the country has logged the highest number of jabs done per day, at 120,529, noting that the average number of vaccines administered before was only 30,000 per day.
This brought the total number of doses administered as of May 17 to 3,114,847, said Galvez.
The Philippines currently has 3,485 vaccination sites, and for May 2021 alone, more than 3.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were delivered to different areas in the country.
The vaccines delivered in May this year included 30,000 Sputnik V; 1,500,000 Sinovac; 2,030,400 AstraZeneca from Covax; and 193,050 Pfizer vaccines from Covax.
Among those who received the vaccines are persons under Priority Groups A1 to A4, which include workers in frontline health services, senior citizens, individuals with comorbidities, and frontline personnel in essential sectors.
Galvez said the Covax facility is also expected to deliver this month 2,200,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, while 1,300,000 Sputnik V doses are already scheduled to be shipped.
“The country will have 7,753,450 doses of Covid-19 vaccine for May,” Galvez said.
In June this year, he said the government is expected to receive a total of 10,050,000 doses of vaccine that include 3.3 million from AstraZeneca, 4.5 million from Sinovac, 250,000 from Moderna and another two million doses of Sputnik V.
“Sa ngayon po ay ginagawa po natin ang grand preparation to achieve herd immunity,” the vaccine czar said, adding that the vaccination of people under Priority Group A4 and A5 will start last week of May.
A4 refers to frontline personnel in essential sectors, including uniformed personnel, while A5 refers to the indigent population.
The areas being focused now for vaccination are the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus area, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao.
“Priority for expansion is the NCR Plus, Cebu and Davao because they have the highest incidents of Covid-19, at ang mga area na ito ay napakaimportante para sa ating ekonomiya,” said vaccine czar and deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon.
He clarified though that as soon as the other Covid-19 vaccine supplies arrive, the vaccination will be expanded to other areas in the country.
As to the vaccination of people under Priority Groups A4 and A5, Dizon said the government will soon release the guidelines, but those who wish to get vaccinated have to register.
Dizon appealed to the public to continue to follow the health protocols and have discipline to prevent a spike in Covid-19 cases.
“Kunting disiplina lang po, kunting pag-aalala na dapat pa rin nating sundin ang ating health standards. Wag po tayong mag kukumpul-kumpolan,” he said.
As of May 18, the Department of Health has logged a total of 1,154,388 Covid-19 cases in the country, with 4,487 new cases recorded Tuesday. Of the total confirmed cases, 1,082,725 have recovered from the disease and 19,372 have died. (SunStar Philippines)