THE government has administered at least four million COVID-19 vaccine doses as of weekend and vaccination has reached an average of 162,513 COVID-19 jabs daily, the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 said yesterday.
The NTF said of the 4.1 vaccine million doses administered nationwide, 3.1 million were first doses.
The country has received about 8.3 million doses of vaccines since February from China’s Sinovac Biotech, Russia’s Gamaleya, and the World Health Organization-backed COVAX Facility which sent vaccines made by the British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca Plc and the US’ Pfizer BioNTech. It is expecting 3.5 million doses this month, including 2.2 million doses of Pfizer vaccines and 1.3 million doses from Gamaleya.
The national vaccination program started on March 1. The government targets to vaccinate 50 million to 70 million individuals this year to achieve herd immunity.
The NTF said that based on a Bloomberg report, the Philippines now ranks second out of 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in terms of total number of COVID vaccines administered, 13th out 47 countries in Asia, and 37th out of 196 countries worldwide.
The task force also said that worldwide, 163 billion doses have been administered in 196 countries, or an average of 28.4 million doses daily.
NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., in a statement released late Saturday, said the Philippines recorded its highest daily vaccination rate on May 20 with 229,769 administered doses and “is expected to soon breach the 1-million mark in terms of individuals who have received both vaccine doses.”
“We need to maintain this momentum and remain focused on building up our vaccine supply, ramping up our vaccination rate, and encouraging more of our countrymen to get the jab. This will be the key to saving our lives, putting an end to this pandemic, and revitalizing our economy,” Galvez said yesterday.
He also said reaching the four-million-mark brings the country closer to achieving its target of half a million jabs per day and achieving herd immunity before 2021 ends.
“I am confident that as we start inoculating our economic frontliner and indigenous population by June, we will be able to double this figure and vaccinate more than four million people as long as there is a steady supply of vaccine,” he added.
The government intends to complete the inoculation of 16.42 million individuals belonging to the A1 priority sector category (health workers), A2 (senior citizen) and A3 (with comorbidities) by June and start the vaccination of the A4 category (economic and government frontliners A4) and the A5 category (indigent sector) by next month.
The Department of Health on Saturday said while majority of the vaccines will be focused on the “NCR Plus 8” areas (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Batangas, Cebu, and Davao), it is open to giving additional doses to provinces where infections are also on the rise.
NTF spokesman Restituto Padilla Jr. said more vaccine are being poured in the NCR Plus 8 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and eventually hasten the reopening of the economy as most of these focused areas are highly urbanized cities and centers of economic activities.
He said the NTF is also monitoring the situation now in Zamboanga City, Palawan and another province in Mindanao where there are high cases of COVID-19.
INFO DRIVE
PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar ordered police chiefs to conduct “Oplan Bandillo,” an information drive using megaphone or loudspeakers, to convince people to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Eleazar issued the order following a recent Social Weather Station survey that showed 33 percent are unwilling to be vaccinated, 35 percent are uncertain, and 32 percent want to be vaccinated.
Eleazar said the Oplan Bandillo and similar information drives on social media are meant to educate the public on the benefits of getting vaccinated, and eventually convince them to be inoculated.
Oplan Bandillo is used by the PNP for community awareness and information dissemination program against criminal elements.
Now, it will also used by the PNP to aid the national government in reducing vaccine hesitancy. Under the plan, policemen on regular beat patrol will be equipped with megaphones and speaker system to conduct the information drive.
Last February when Eleazar was commander of the Administrative Support on COVID-19 Task Force (ASCOTF), he said only 51 percent of about 220,000 policemen wanted to be vaccinated but it rose to 84 percent because an information drive conducted by the PNP.
Eleazar said the PNP wants the information drive within the PNP to be replicated, this time to convince the public to get vaccinated.
24/7 VACCINATION CENTER?
Padilla said the vaccination center to be set up at the Nayong Pilipino property in Parañaque City may operate 24/7 if there is enough vaccine supply and vaccinators and other personnel to man the center.
He said the Nayong Pilipino vaccination site will have its own storage facility and will be able to access the vaccines easily to ensure continued operation. It also offers a drive-thru vaccination area for those with vehicles who do not want to go to the center, and an onsite inoculation center.
Padilla said the government is hoping to start the construction of the mega-vaccination facility within a month to a half-a-month’s time.
The Nayong Pilipino Foundation initially objected to the project due to concerns about its possible impact on the environment.
VACCINE SLOTS FOR SALE
Padilla assured the public that more vaccines are coming and that the vaccines are free. He made the statement following reports that some vaccine slots are being sold for P8,000 to P15,000.
Padilla said some local government units such as Mandaluyong, San Juan, Quezon City and Parañaque have coordinated with the National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) to investigate the reported sale of slots. The Department of Interior and Local Government is conducting its own investigation.
Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez has said he received reports that some “unscrupulous individuals” were selling slots or assuring vaccine slots vaccine for a fee.
Padilla echoed Galvez’ call on Saturday for people not to take advantage of the pandemic.
He said the public, instead of entertaining these illegal activities, should report those behind the scheme.
Eleazar said the PNP has yet to gather evidence on the reported sale.
“As of now, we have yet to confirm if this happened and we have yet to make an arrest. If this happened or not, we still have to find out but definitely we still have no evidence this happened,” said Eleazar.
Eleazar said the PNP has gotten hold of the copy of text message exchanges between an alleged seller of the vaccine slots and a potential buyer. — With Gerard Naval and Victor Reyes
