Gov’t to administer 10M doses in July: Galvez

MANILA – The government is targeting to administer 8 to 10 million doses of Covid-19 jabs in July, as more supplies are expected to be delivered in the coming months.

“Ang ating National Vaccination Operation Center kasama po ang ating mga LGU sa pamumuno po ni (the National Vaccination Operation Center with the local government units led by) Secretary Vince Dizon will endeavor to achieve 8-10 million doses to be administered for the month of July, the global supply permitting,” said Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. in his report during President Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk to the People on Monday night.

Galvez, the chief implementer of the National Task Force Against Covid-19, said the government will try to double its utilization rate to at least 2 million doses every week beginning next month.

“Kasi nakuha po natin 1.6 million kada buwan (Because we already hit the 1.6 million monthly). And then based on the guidance of the President, we are reallocating more vaccines to surge area,” he added.

Galvez, also the country’s vaccine czar, also reported the government has already breached the 10 million mark on Saturday and hit its target utilization of 5 million doses for the month of June alone.

He said 100 percent of the healthcare workers included on the government’s prioritization master list of the vaccination program have already been vaccinated.

Galvez attributed these positive developments to the local government units’ (LGUs) exerted efforts to further improve their respective vaccination plans.

Once the private sector-procured vaccines would be delivered, Galvez said the vaccination rate will increase more than the expected target.

There is a significant increase in the vaccination rate since the rollout began in March, he said.

“So in March 2021, we just started to 700,000 per month. In April, we had 1 million, and then in May, we hit over 3 million. And now, before the June ends, we had 5 million, a total of 10 million,” Galvez said.

He said the high vaccination rate is recorded every weekday from 200,000 to 300,000 doses.

There is a low recorded vaccination rate during Saturdays and Sundays, he added, as only selected vaccination sites are operating during weekends.