All on-hand vaccines deployed nationwide

MANILA – All 1,125,600 doses of government on-hand vaccines have been deployed in various public and private hospitals nationwide, National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said Wednesday.

Galvez, also the country’s vaccine czar, said the government is set to inoculate senior citizens, indigent population, and other vulnerable sectors beginning April and May, after the vaccination of around 1.7 million medical professionals and other healthcare workers is done by mid-April.

“We have prioritized the vaccination of our healthcare workers to preserve the integrity of our health care system,” he said in an interview at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum.

Mass vaccination of the general public will start once the vaccine production and supply become steady between May and June, Galvez said.

Galvez said they are targeting to inoculate 1 million Filipinos weekly in April, 2 million weekly in May, at least 3 to 5 million weekly in July and in the succeeding months.

“With this, we can substantially say that by the end of the year, we can inoculate 70 million Filipinos,” he said.

According to Galvez, about 9 million senior citizens are listed in the government’s priority master list on the vaccination program.

The country received 600,000 doses of China-donated CoronaVac and 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX Facility. President Rodrigo Duterte himself welcomed the arrival of the vaccines last Feb. 28 and March 4.

The Philippines is expected to receive a total of 2,379,200 vaccine doses more this March, 1.4 million of which are Sinovac vaccines.

According to a news release by the NTF, the 400,000 doses donated by the Chinese government will be delivered on March 24, while the 1 million doses procured by the government will arrive on March 28.

The government is also expecting 979,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX Facility by the end of March or early April.

Two million doses from Sinovac and another 2 million doses of Sputnik V from Gamaleya and the COVAX Facility are expected to arrive by April.