Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. announced on Monday night, May 31, that the country has the highest vaccine "throughput" in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
At a rate of at least 150,000 doses being administered daily, Galvez said the country currently has the fastest vaccination rate in the entire ASEAN, surpassing the likes of Thailand and Indonesia (100,000 shots daily), as well as Myanmar and Vietnam.
"Sa ASEAN po, ang Philippines na po ang may highest throughput per capital among the five largest ASEAN countries. Ibig sabihin po ng throughput, tayo na po ang malakas mag-inject ng jabs every day (In the ASEAN, the Philippines has the highest throughput per capital among the five largest ASEAN countries. Throughput means that we have the fastest injection of jabs every day)," said Galvez during President Duterte's public address.
"Ito 'yong tinatawag natin na tempo dahil sa ASEAN po, tayo po ang pinakamataas na 150,000 per day (This is what we call tempo in the ASEAN where we have the highest output of 150,000 per day)," he further explained.
Vaccine throughput is described as the administration of as many vaccines possible in the shortest time.
As of May 30, a total of 5,180,721 doses have already been administered in the country, government data showed. The vaccination program started on March 1.
Around 1.40 million healthcare frontliners, 1.38 million senior citizens, 1.18 million persons with co-morbidities, and 11,000 economic frontliners have already received at least one shot of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine.
Galvez lauded the local government units (LGUs), which have scaled up their capacities and started registering record-breaking daily vaccination tallies. These include Quezon City and Manila.
The Quezon City government has more than doubled its previous daily record of 8,000 shots to 19,000 shots. Meanwhile, Manila has reached a daily rate of 21,000 administered doses.
As such, Galvez expressed optimism that the National Capital Region (NCR) would be able to carry out 120,000 vaccinations per month.
Once the vaccine supply stabilizes in the third quarter of the year, Galvez said that the country will be able to vaccinate 500,000 to 740,000 people daily.
To achieve "population protection" from COVID-19, the national government is eyeing the immunization of around 58 to 70 million Filipinos before the end of 2021.
The NTF has replaced the term "herd immunity" with population protection after it lowered the target number of Filipinos that it aims to inoculate by year-end.