PASIG CITY – The Philippines has set another record in its vaccination program as a total of 702,013 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered on Tuesday, August 3, the highest daily throughput the country has registered to date.
“We are very happy with this accomplishment. What we projected for the second quarter was just 500,000 jabs daily and the 700,000 mark was our goal for the fourth quarter,” said National Task Force against COVID 19 Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.
“But we were able to reach this figure as early as August and it’s all because of the relentless efforts from our healthcare workers, local government units, private sector, and the Filipino people,” Galvez noted, adding, “This is really a product of collaboration and cooperation among all sectors. Bayanihan at its finest.”
These latest figures were released following the submission of the updated vaccination records of various implementing units across the country.
“Our initial tally was just 673,652 but we received updated records from various regions on their output for Tuesday including NCR, which was able to administer 203,000 doses in a single day,” Galvez explained.
Of the more than 700,000 doses administered, 233,065 were given as the first dose, while nearly half a million doses were dispensed as the second shot.
This brings the total number of doses administered to 21,912,142, of which 12, 073, 567 shots were given as the first dose.
The total number of fully vaccinated Filipinos nationwide has reached 9,838,573 million.
“These figures are telling us that we are on the right track in the implementation of our national vaccination program,” said NTF Deputy Chief Implementer and testing czar Secretary Vivencio Dizon.
“The Filipino people are with us in this journey of protecting one another against COVID-19 and its highly-transmissible variants,” Dizon added.
According to Galvez, the high vaccination rate for the second dose of COVID-19 shots can be partly attributed to the deployment of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines across the country.
The vaccines, which were donated through the sharing agreement between the United States and COVAX facility, were allocated for the A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (persons with comorbidities) groups particularly those residing in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas.
“We want to keep this momentum as we continue to push for more vaccine deliveries this month. Even with the ECQ, we will continue to increase our vaccination capacity in an orderly and efficient manner, while ensuring that minimum public health standards are observed so that the well-being of our fellow Filipinos will not be compromised,” said Galvez.
Vaccine supply
The vaccine czar shared that 22.7 million doses of COVID 19-vaccines are expected to be delivered this August.
Out of this number, 3.4 million doses have been shipped to the country, while the delivery of 14.7 million shots have been assured by different manufacturers and sources.
These assured vaccine deliveries include doses procured by the national government from Sinovac, Pfizer, and Moderna.
Also included in these deliveries are the shots secured by the private sector from Astrazeneca and Moderna, as well as the donation from China consisting of one million doses of Sinopharm.
“We are still negotiating with other manufacturers, as well as with COVAX on the number of doses we need on a monthly basis, which is at least 25 million doses,” said Galvez.
“With the latest vaccination output, we are more determined to work on increasing our vaccine supply to ensure that we will be able to beat COVID 19. Bayan Everyone Acting Together,” he added. END
