NTF sees daily vax rate to increase with more supplies arriving

MANILA – National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 chief Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. on Wednesday expressed optimism that the country’s daily vaccination rate will soon increase with more jab supplies arriving in the remaining months of 2021.

This, after the country has recorded a decrease in the average daily vaccination rate in the previous weeks.

“Sa ngayon nakikita namin na mataas ang prospects in October until the end of the year, na tataas ang vaccination natin (So far, we see higher prospects in October until the end of the year and the vaccination rate will go up),” Galvez said in a media briefing in Taytay, Rizal.

Galvez, also the country’s vaccine czar, cited a “significant” reduction of the active cases in the past weeks, allowing the government to expedite the national vaccination program.

He said the vaccination rate has slightly slowed down as healthcare workers opted to go back to treatment facilities to attend to positive Covid-19 patients.

The NTF earlier noted a decrease by as much as 12,000 in the average daily vaccination rate last month due to a surge in cases.

“Medyo bumababa na ang cases natin ngayon (There’s a slight decrease in our active cases) and we hope and pray to God, that our cases would really go down, at least, our healthcare workers, they will shift their focus on the vaccination,” Galvez said.

He said the volume of Covid-19 vaccines that is being delivered in the country is also increasing.

“Once we received the additional volumes, our vaccination capacity will also increase,” he said.

NTF deputy chief and testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon also cited the challenging vaccine rollout amid the surge of cases last month.

“Dahil nga yung mga healthcare workers natin na nagbabakuna ay talaga sa kanila minove yung mga services sa mga ospital (Because our healthcare workers who were also the vaccinators are really the ones taking care of the services in the hospitals),” he said.

He added the stalled vaccine deliveries in the first two weeks of September also affected the country’s daily vaccination rate.

“Ngayong October madami na ang supply, kumukonti na ang cases natin at yung mga healthcare workers natin–slowly but surely ay pumupunta na at bumabalik na sa vaccination centers (So this October, our supplies are increasing, the cases are slowing down and our healthcare workers are slowly but surely going back to the vaccination centers),” Dizon said.

He also cited the country has recorded about 630,000 doses administered as of Tuesday.

The Philippines has received 77,410,640 doses, with additional 1,015,560 Pfizer doses will be arriving in the country Wednesday night.

A total of 47,778,751 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been utilized since the vaccination rollout began on March 1.