Galvez raises monthly vaccination target to 8-10 million
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. has raised to eight to 10 million the national government's target vaccine doses to be administered for the month of July.
Galvez increased the goal as the government is poised to hit its target of five million administered doses for the month of June.
As of June 27, a total of 4,817,056 doses have been administered nationwide for the month of June alone. This represents nearly half of the total administered vaccines since February which stood at 10,065,414 doses.
"Our National Vaccination Operation Center, including our local government units through the leadership of Sec. Vince Dizon, will endeavor to achieve eight to 10 million doses to be administered for the month of July, the global supply permitting," Galvez said during Pres. Duterte's public address on Monday night, June 28.
"Iyon po ang target po natin ngayon na makapagbakuna po tayo ng more or less dalawang milyon kada ano, kada week po kasi nakuha po natin 1.6 million kada buwan (Our target is to inoculate around 1.6 million per week because we achieved that target)," he added.
From June 21 to 27, the weekly average of administered vaccines was 1,658,072. The highest daily vaccination was recorded on June 24 with 348,184 doses.
To further speed up the immunization program and arrest the spike of cases, Galvez said the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 will reallocate the supply of vaccines to areas outside Metro Manila that are experiencing a surge of infections.
The National Capital Region (NCR), considered as the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, was given with the highest allocation of vaccines with 4,205,558 doses given so far.
It was followed by other high-risk areas such as Calabarzon (Region 4A or Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) with 296,299 doses; Central Visayas (Region 7) with 129,555 doses; Central Luzon (Region 3) with 190,078 doses; Western Visayas with 114,091 doses; and Davao Region (Region 11) with 75,587 doses.
But Galvez said they will prioritize "surge areas" in the allocation of upcoming deliveries including Cagayan Valley (Region 2); Bicol (Region 5); Eastern Visayas (Region 8); Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9); SOCCSKSARGEN (Region 12 or South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City); and Caraga (Region 13).
"Ang mga iba areas medyo mahina po ang capacity pa nila. Tinitingnan po natin, pinag-aaralan po namin kung paano po magkaroon ng expansion ang capacity ng mga ibang LGUs at saka bibigyan po natin sila ng mga tinatawag natin ng additional allocation (Other areas have weak capacity. We are studying how to expand the capacity of other LGUs so we can give them additional allocation)," he said.
A total of 13.32 million doses are expected to be delivered in the country in July while an additional 13.67 million doses will arrive in August.