Vaccine czar secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Thursday the national government could inject 70 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines by November.
“Realistically speaking, 70 million, kaya po namin ‘yan. 70 million na first dose ‘yan po ang target na makuha namin before November,” Galvez said in an ANC interview.
(Realistically speaking, we can achieve 70 million first doses. That is what we want to achieve before November.)
Galvez also said the government targets to vaccinate 40 million Filipinos with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines by the third quarter of 2021.
He also agreed with what World Health Organization representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe said that the government’s vaccination plan is “ambitious.”
“Sa [Inter-Agency Task Force] at sa [National Task Force] po mas maganda po mas mataas ang ating standard at ang ating target. Ginawa natin na very ambitious, so we could really inspire and talagang push the [local government unit] and the national government to its limits and its potential,” he said.
(The IATF and NTF believe that the higher targets and standards, the better. Therefore, we made our plan very ambitious so that we could push the LGUs and the national government to its limits and its potential.)
The vaccine czar is confident that the Philippines could achieve 500,000 jabs per day.
According to WHO’s target, all countries should inoculate 10% of their population by September 2021, 40% by the end of 2021, and 70% by June 2022 regardless of its economic status.
PH can inject 70 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccine by November – Galvez
The government targets to vaccinate at least 58 million of the population before the end of the year.
As of the last record, 11.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been injected in the Philippines.
The average number of COVID-19 vaccines administered daily stood at 254,141 as of July 4.
The COVID-19 vaccine brands available in the PHilippines are Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sputnik V, and Moderna.
Meanwhile, the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said the arrival of 170,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines was delayed.
NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon explained an issue with the packing of vaccines, so the delivery was delayed.
But he said they would also be boarded on the next available flight and are expected to arrive in the country in the next few days.
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