PH administers 11-M COVID-19 vaccine doses so far - Dizon
The Philippines has so far administered 11 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to its population, testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon said.
Dizon, who is also the deputy chief implementer of the government’s task force against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), said one million doses were administered in the past four days.
“Sa loob lamang ng apat na araw, isang milyong doses ang nai-jab natin from Monday, June 28, hanggang kahapon Thursday, July 1 (In just four days, we administered a million doses from Monday, June 28, to Thursday, July 1),” Dizon said in a public briefing Friday, July 2.
“Ito ang pinakamabilis na na jab natin simula nung tayo’y nag launch ng ating vaccination program nung Marso, at dahil diyan 11 million na ang ating jabs na na-administer sa ating mga kababayan (This is the fastest since we launched our vaccination program in March, and as a result 11 million jabs have been administered to the people),” he added.
According to Dizon, the government is now capable of administering over 250,000 jabs per day on average, but this is only a little over 50 percent of the target 500,000 jabs daily.
“Lumampas ng tayo ng 250,000. Ang ating target ay 500,000. Pero siyempre ito ay dulot na rin ng kakulangan sa supply (We exceed 250,000 . Our target is 500,000 . But of course this is also caused by the shortage of supply),” he explained.
“Pero may mga araw, kapag marami tayong supply na nakukuha, umaabot na tayo ng mahigit 350,000. At tingin natin sa maga susunod na araw o linggo kapag dumating na ang ating maraming mga doses na padating ngayong July ay maabot na natin ang ating target (But some days, when we get a lot of supply, we reach over 350,000 . And we look forward that in the coming days or weeks we will reach our target when much larger supply of doses will arrive this July),” he added.
He admitted that the government is still struggling with the limited supply of vaccines, but he noted that more Filipinos have expressed willingness to get vaccinated.
“Ang totoo ngayon, hirap pa rin tayo sa supply. Pero ang kinagandahan nito ay marami na sa ating mga kababayan ang gusto nang makatanggap ng kanilang bakuna (The truth is, we are still struggling with supply. But the good thing of this is that many people want to get their vaccine),” Dizon said.
“Kaya nga marami sa ating mga local chief executives, mga gobernador ay humihingi na ng napakaraming bakuna (That is why many of our local chief executives, governors are already asking for more vaccines),” he added.
Dizon has also apologized to local officials who have requested for more vaccine doses to be allocated to their localities, saying that the government could not do so as there is still not enough supply of vaccines.
“Humihingi tayo ng pasensya sa ating mga mayor, sa ating mga governor na dahil nga sa limitadong supply, ay hindi pa tayo makapagbigay ng maraming bakuna sa kanila (We apologize to our mayors, to our governors that due to the limited supply, we have not been able to give them many vaccines),” he said.