More vaccines mean wider coverage: Galvez

MANILA – The government is eyeing to conduct a simultaneous massive vaccination of different priority groups (A1 to A4) as the bulk of supplies arrives between May and June, National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Friday.

“We will target different sectors simultaneously para maiksi ang (so we can shorten the) time with maximum output,” Galvez said in a Palace press briefing.

The priority groups for the vaccination were identified by the Interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group.

Under the vaccination roadmap, the government will facilitate the vaccination of individuals under the A1 to A3 priority groups.

A1 category includes front-liners from private and public health institutions; health professionals; non-professionals such as students, nursing aides, janitors; village health workers; and national and local government front-liners.

The A2 category covers senior citizens while falling under A3 are individuals with comorbidities.

The private sector will facilitate the inoculation of Filipinos under the A4 priority group, such as uniformed personnel and other essential front-liners.

“Kapag nagkaroon tayo ng full mobilization, ine-expect namin na tataas ang ating (When we have full-mobilization, we are expecting to increase our) vaccination rate to 100,000 a day or even 250,000 a day),” said Galvez.

Galvez earlier said the government is targeting to inoculate one million Filipinos weekly in April, two million weekly in May and at least three to five million weekly from July onwards.

A total of 2,379,200 vaccine doses are expected to be delivered this March and 2.6 million doses of AstraZeneca in May.

The Philippines is also slated to receive five to eight million doses of vaccines by May, which include private sector-procured vaccines, some 200,00 doses of Moderna jabs, and two million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac.

Some five million doses produced by the Gamaleya Institute and Sinovac companies are likewise slated to arrive in April.