The country has administered around 44,000 doses of anti-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines eight days after the national vaccination program kicked off, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. disclosed on Tuesday, March 9.

At this rate, the government is vaccinating around 5,500 people daily.

Globally, around seven million people are being vaccinated daily, bringing the total number of inoculated people to more than 300 million in 120 countries, Galvez stated.

"Nakakatuwa po ay nakasama na po ang Pilipinas sa mga numero at mayroon na po tayong more or less 44,000 na doses na na-administer (We are happy because the Philippines is included in the numbers and we have more or less 44,000 doses administered)," Galvez said during President Duterte's Cabinet meeting Monday night, March 8.

The vaccine czar said the Filipinos' uptake on anti-COVID-19 vaccines, especially for China's Sinovac, increased from 37 percent to around 50 percent after the vaccination of medical frontliners and government officials.

"Iyong recent hesitancy po ng ano ng ating mga kababayan sa Sinovac, noong nagkaroon po tayo ng vaccination ng ating mga director ng mga hospital, tumaas po ang level ng kanilang confidence (As for the recent hesitancy of our countrymen with Sinovac, their level of confidence increased when we vaccinated the directors of our hospitals)," Galvez told Duterte.

Since March 1, the country had received a total of 1,125,000 million doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines from the donation of China and through the Covax facility.

Galvez reiterated the government's commitment to provide safe and effective vaccines to the people, saying 67 countries have already used AstraZeneca vaccines. Meanwhile, 15 countries have utilized Sinovac jabs although four of them doesn't recommend it for use of elderly people including China, Thailand, Chile, and the Philippines.

United States' Pfizer vaccines remain to be the priority brand around the world with 84 million administered doses; followed by AstraZeneca with 46.5 million; US' Moderna with 46 million; China's Sinopharm with 40 million; Sinovac with 36 million; and Russia's Sputnik V from Gamaleya Institute with 11.37 million.

"Iyong anim na nauuna, ito po iyong kasama sa mga portfolio po natin. Meaning, iyong pinili po natin na mga bakuna ay ginagamit na po ng maraming mga countries (The six leading vaccines are included in our portfolio. This means that the vaccines that we chose are already being utilized in many countries)," Galvez stressed.