10-M jabs, a major milestone but more needs to be done — Galvez

VALENZUELA CITY — The National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19’s Vaccine Cluster, together with Valenzuela City officials, held a symbolic vaccination for different priority groups on Monday, June 28, as the Philippines breached the 10 million mark in the total number of anti-COVID vaccine jabs administered over the weekend.

As of June 27, 10,065,414 vaccine doses have been administered nationwide. Of this number, 7,538,128 individuals received their first dose, while 2,527,286 have been fully vaccinated.

“Very significant ito dahil bagamat maraming hindi naniwala, nakapagbakuna tayo ng limang milyon sa loob lamang ng isang buwan. Malayo ito sa isang milyong nagawa natin sa loob ng 40 araw noong tayo’y nagsisimula pa lang,” said NTF Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr in his remarks during the ceremony.

“Pero nakita rin natin na ‘yung 10 million [jabs administered] is very small compared to our target of 70 million Filipinos to be inoculated,” he added.

Galvez reaffirmed the NTF’s commitment to ensure the steady supply of vaccines in the coming months in order to realize the government’s goal of achieving population protection as well as herd immunity before year-end.

“Medyo kulang pa tayo ng supply at ‘di pa nakakapag-rollout ang private sector. Pero nakatitiyak tayo na sa darating na mga araw, pagpasok ng July, ay makakaya na natin ang 500,000 jabs a day. By then, we can easily administer six to eight million shots or even 10 million shots a month,” said Galvez.

As of June 27, 10,065,414 doses have been administered nationwide. Of this number, 7,538,128 individuals received their first dose, while 2,527,286 have been fully vaccinated.

The country’s average daily vaccination rate has now reached 236,867, while the average number of active reporting vaccination sites in the last seven days is 1,231.

“Kaya if we raise the bar, accelerate our target monthly, and with the private sector complementing our efforts in the vaccine rollout, we can administer at least two million doses per week,” Galvez said.

“And hopefully, supply permitting, we will be able to achieve half of our 2021 target by the third quarter or sometime in September wherein at least 40 million Filipinos have been vaccinated,” he added.

Collective effort

Meanwhile, IATF Chair and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III pointed out that the 10 million mark is a testament of the collective effort of the national government, local government units, the private sector, and all Filipinos in the fight against COVID 19.

“Hindi kakayanin ng LGUs lamang, hindi kakayanin ng mga tumutulong mula sa pribadong sektor, ito po ay laban ng bawat Pilipino. Nasa balikat po natin ang kakayahan para mapagtagumpayan ang COVID 19,” Duque said.

“We are not helpless, marami po tayong pwedeng gawin upang labanan at sana ay mawakasan natin ang napakalaking suliraning pangkalusugan,” he added.

Health Undersecretary and Chair of National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) Myrna Cabotaje called on those who have been vaccinated to encourage their family members to get the jab as well.

“Wala pong silbi ang bakuna kapag di kayo sisipot [sa scheduled vaccination]. Kailangan magtulong-tulong to achieve 10 million [jabs] in July with supply permitting,” said Cabotaje.

Likewise, NTF Deputy Chief Implementer and testing czar Secretary Vivencio Dizon lauded the leadership demonstrated by the LGUs in the vaccine rollout, as well as for effectively managing their active COVID-19 cases.

“Nakikita natin ngayon na kahit nagkaroon tayo ng surge noong mga nakaraang buwan, na-control kaagad ng NCR through the leadership of the mayors. Ngayon, it’s a race against the new variants at kaparte ng ating ginagawang mas pinaigting na P-D-I-T-R (Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate) strategy ay kailangan bilisan natin ang pagbabakuna,” said Dizon.

Duque also welcomed the proposal of LGUs to help fast track the deployment and administration of vaccines by offering the use of their vaccination sites and facilities to neighboring cities and provinces.

For example, Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian committed to open their mega vaccination site at the city’s astrodome for Bulacan residents once the vaccination of his people has been completed.

According to Gatchalian, the facility can accommodate 2,500 individuals a day.

All healthcare workers have received their jabs

Galvez also announced that 100% of the A1 priority group or 1,669,660 healthcare workers in the government’s masterlist have now received one dose of the anti-COVID vaccine, while 67% of them or 1,131,498 have been fully vaccinated.

“We are very pleased with this development as we ensure the integrity of our healthcare system especially with the emergence of new COVID 19 variants. We have already secured the supply for the remaining 30% of our healthcare workers who are just waiting to get their second shot,” said Galvez.

Vaccine supply

For the month of June, the Philippines has received a total of 9,126,420 vaccine doses, of which 6.5 million doses came from Sinovac (CoronaVac); 100,000 doses from Gamaleya (Sputnik V); 2,276,820 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech from the COVAX facility; and 249,600 doses from Moderna.

Since February, the country has received a total of 17,455,470 doses of anti-COVID vaccines from five manufacturers.

In July, more than 13 million doses are expected to arrive in the country including doses procured by the private sector from Astrazeneca.

Of this figure, around two million doses are donations from the US and Japanese governments.

Galvez said the government’s vaccine deployment still follows the focus and expand strategy wherein those prioritized are high risk areas and localities that may experience possible surges in cases.

“Our deployment is still based on data. We will deploy the vaccines to where it is much needed which is why the majority of the supply that we have are delivered to Visayas and Mindanao areas, and those LGUs included in our expanded NCR plus 10,” the vaccine czar said.

The NCR plus 10 or expanded priority areas include Bacolod City, Iloilo City, Cagayan de Oro City, Baguio City, Zamboanga City, Dumaguete City, Tuguegarao City, General Santos City, Naga City, and Legazpi City. END