Amid the gloomy pandemic situation, the country has reached a new milestone in its efforts to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as the total number of administered vaccine doses breached one million mark over the weekend, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Sunday night, April 11.
Galvez, chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, said a total of 1,137,534 vaccine doses were already administered as of 6 p.m. Saturday, April 10. The feat was achieved a month and nearly two weeks after the government launched its free inoculation program on March 1.
Galvez made the remark as the national government received 500,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccines that were procured from Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech.
"With the arrival of the additional 500,000 Sinovac vaccines, this will surely help in our effort to vaccinate more Filipino people and put an end to this pandemic," Galvez said.
For the month of April, a total of 1.5 million procured Sinovac vaccines are expected to be delivered to the country by China. The remaining balance of one million doses are set to be shipped by the end of the month, Galvez said.
Meanwhile, an additional two million doses of Sinovac vaccines will arrive in May.
The deliveries are part of the 25 million vaccine supply secured by the government from Sinovac.
Galvez said the government has focused the allocation of the vaccines in areas with the highest infection rate.
These include the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal or NCR Plus; the rest of Calabarzon (Region 4A); Central Luzon (Region 3); Cebu; Western Visayas (Region 6); Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9); and Davao Region (Region 11).
While administering over one million vaccines is a laudable act, the government has still a long way to go in achieving its target of inoculating 50 to 70 million within the year to achieve herd immunity.
To achieve the goal, Galvez had said that the government aims to inoculate 500,000 to one million people weekly in April or May, and possibly more in the third quarter.
The vaccination program may pick up its pace in the second or third quarter of 2021 once the bulk of supply of the purchased vaccines arrive, he noted.
In June, a total of 10.5 million vaccine doses are set to arrive in the country; 13.5 million in July; and 20 million each from August to December.