HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque yesterday said government has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in a single day last Tuesday with 680,883 jabs, surpassing its previous record of 660,000 on July 27.
Duque told a hearing of the House committee on health that the government is now vaccinating people at a quicker pace, way beyond its initial target of 500,000 doses per day.
Government has been saying more will be vaccinated in the coming months as more vaccines are expected to arrive. Last month, the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19
Duque said the government is already administering an average of 3 million vaccines weekly and just last week, the daily vaccine average stood at 529,911 doses.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. the country has administered 21,883,781 doses of various vaccines, of which 12,058,315 are first doses and 9,825,466 are second doses which made recipients fully vaccinated.
As of now, he said, the figure represents 13.87 percent of the targeted eligible population and 8.85 percent of the country’s total population.
“There was a significant increase within our daily jabs this week, the daily average of 529,911 doses, many people even our detractors said that it is very impossible for us to have the 500,000. Now we are breaching now more than 600,000 and nearly 700,000-mark,” he said.
Vice President Leni Robredo said the vaccination target should be increased to 750,000 a day if Malacañang is really serious when it said it was hoping that the August 6 to 20 lockdown would be the last ever for Metro Manila.
She said the level should be 750,000 a day if the government is to reach its target of having herd immunity this year.
Robredo repeated her call for the government to ramp up testing to at least 120,000 daily since the country is only averaging 50,000 tests a day.
SENIORS
With two-thirds of the country’s senior citizens yet to be vaccinated, the Department of Health said it is seeking the help of relatives and friends of the elderly people in convincing them to get inoculated.
“All of us must know that seniors do listen to people close to them. It could be their families, friends, fellow seniors, mahjong or chess playmates, or their own healthcare providers,” said Dr. Beverly Ho, director of the DOH Health Promotion Bureau.
Ho asked local government units (LGUs) to make sure that their immunization programs are accessible to seniors by, among others, establishing registration sites in barangays in lieu of online registration. opening call centers for senior citizen queries, extending operating hours of vaccination sites, providing free transportation for older people, and conducting house-to-house jabs.
The number of vaccinated senior citizens, who are classified under the A2 priority group of the national vaccination drive, is still low. Of the 8.48 million senior citizens, only 2.69 million or 32.57 percent have been fully vaccinated.
Ho noted that seniors account for more than 60 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the country.
Franklin Quijano, chairman of the National Commission of Senior Citizens, said many senior citizens in the provinces want to be vaccinated but are unaware when vaccines will be available in their areas. — With Gerard Naval and Jocelyn Montemayor
