The national government received an additional 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine on Wednesday, Nov. 24, from the donations of Australia.
The AstraZeneca vaccines arrived onboard Cathay Pacific Airlines flight CX907 at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 around 10:05 a.m.
The arrival of the life-saving jabs was witnessed by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., Department of Health Sec. Francisco Duque III, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Steven Robinson, and representatives from the National Task Force (NTF) and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on pandemic response, and AstraZeneca.
“I have informed the Australian ambassador that most of the vaccines will be used for the National Vaccination Day, and maybe first dose or second dose, and boosters,” Galvez told reporters at the airport.
Slated from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, the National Vaccination Day dubbed as “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” aims to raise the vaccination output in areas outside the National Capital Region (NCR).
The three-day immunization program seeks to vaccinate at least five million per day or a total of 15 million individuals.
Galvez said nationwide vaccination drive will be simultaneously held with the pediatric inoculation and booster vaccination.
“Ang recommenation sa lahat ng LGUs at sa ating mga vaccination sites (Our recommendation to all LGUs and vaccination sites is) there will be a separate vaccination site for children, boosters, and first and second doses,” the vaccine czar stated.
He explained that the segregation of vaccination sites for the different sectors will avoid confusion and errors in the vaccination process.
“There are only a handful of allowable vaccines for children, Pfizer and Moderna so we will not make a mistake,” Galvez said in a mix of Filipino and English.
Further, it will also be easy to monitor how many individuals have already received their booster shots since only three categories are allowed to get the additional doses.
“As for boosters, our accounting will be very easy to segregate,” Galvez added.
A ceremonial vaccination program will be launched on Nov. 29 in Masinag, Rizal to kick-off the National Vaccination Day.
A separate closing program will also be held in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on Dec. 1.
Meanwhile, Amb. Robinson said the vaccine donations were part of the 3.6 million doses that Australia will donate to the Philippines in the coming months. About 2.2 million doses will be coming from thw domestic supply of Australia while 1.4 million doses will be coursed through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The country has already received 135,161,900 doses of COVID-19 vaccines while 77,560,344 doses have been administered as of Wednesday.
A total of 43,290,294 individuals have received their first dose while 34,199,550 others have been fully vaccinated. There were also 70,500 people who have been given with booster shots.
The fully vaccinated population represents 44.33 percent of the 77 million eligible population that the government intends to inoculate to achieve herd immunity by year-end.