Around 47 million doses of vaccines against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are currently stored in government storage facilities and are yet to be administered, an adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said Sunday, Nov. 7.
“As of October 31, nasa 47 million ang doses na nasa storage na hindi pa nababakuna, kasi mga 60 million ang naibakuna na natin (there are 47 million doses in storage that have not been administered, since we have already administered 60 million),” Dr. Ted Herbosa said over radio DZBB.
Over 860,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine were delivered to the country on Nov. 6, which brought the total jab supply to 110,646,500 doses.
The health adviser also bared that there are 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by COVAX last month that are set to expire by Nov. 30.
“Wala namang problema ‘yan kasi nangyari na ‘yan noong Abril. Nakapagbakuna na tayo at naubos naman natin yung AstraZeneca (There is no problem with that because it happened in April. We have been vaccinating and we have used up the AstraZeneca),” he said.
“So as of now, ‘yan ang nilalabas natin muna sapagkat yung iba mahaba pa ‘yung shelf life (That’s what we release first because the others still have a long shelf life),” he added.
As of Nov. 6, a total of 63,733,776 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered nationwide so far, based on the National COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard.
Of the number, 34,402,150 doses were administered for the first dose, while 29,331,626 doses were used for the second dose.
National vaccination days
The government is eyeing to conduct a three-day national immunization drive this month to speed up the inoculation efforts in the country, Herbosa said.
He said that vaccine experts from the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) have suggested the conduct of “National Immunization Days.”
“Nung una, one day lang (At first it was set as a one-day event only). But as more meetings came about, parang pinaplano na sa (the plan was that it may be held from) November 22, 23, at 24,” he said.
Herbosa said the planned conduct of the nationwide vaccination drive targets to administer almost five million doses per day, or around 15 million doses during its three-day run.
“So sa mas madaling panahon, mas maraming Pilipino ang mabibigyan ng at least one dose, at yung mga naghihintay ng second dose mabigay na rin kaagad (in short amount of time, more Filipinos will be given at least one dose, and those who are waiting for the second dose will be given as well,” he said.