The country is expected to receive around five to eight million doses of vaccines against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the fourth and last week of this month.

This was the projection made by Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, on Sunday, Aug. 22, as he expressed satisfaction on the current rate of the national vaccination program.

According to Galvez, the expected deliveries include three million doses of Sinovac, around 360,000 doses of Pfizer, and around 1.8 million doses of Moderna.

The Sinovac and Pfizer jabs were all procured by the national government while the Moderna were purchased by the government and the private sector through a trilateral arrangement.

Aside from these, Galvez expects that the COVAX facility will also deliver its monthly pledge of three million doses to the Philippines.

"Napakasaya po natin dahil palaki nang palaki ang bilang ng ating mga kababayan na nakakakuha na ng complete doses ng mga bakuna (We are very happy because more people are getting the complete doses of the vaccines)," he said.

The government is expected to breach the 30-millionth mark in administered jabs since it first began the national vaccination program in March. As of Aug. 20, more than 13 million Filipinos have already been fully vaccinated while 16.9 million have received their first dose.

The fully vaccinated individuals represent around 18.5 percent of the 77 million eligible population that is targetted to be vaccinated by the government by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity, Galvez noted.

Meanwhile, the country's daily jab rate for the month of August has been sustained at 475,532 doses. This was far from the target of the government to achieve 500,000 to 750,000 jabs per day.

As of Aug. 21, the total cumulative vaccine supply stood at 48,522,890 doses. Of these, more than 39.8 million doses have been deployed nationwide.

The vaccine czar said that with the arrival of more supplies, the allocation for all regions will increase to ensure that local government units (LGUs) across the country will continue to raise their vaccination output and protect more lives.

"Sinisiguro natin na bagamat nakatutok tayo sa mga lugar na matataas ang mga kaso at may presence ng Delta variant, hindi mapag-iiwanan ang ibang mga probinsya lalung-lalo na ang mga kababayan natin na naninirahan sa mga isla at iba pang malalayong lugar (We assure you that although we are concentrating in areas with high number of cases and with presence of the Delta variant, the provinces will not be left behind especially our countrymen living in islands and far-flung areas)," Galvez promised.