THE government has reached half of its 500,000 daily Covid-19 vaccination target as inoculations further accelerated and averaged 254,141 in the last seven days, the Department of Health (DOH) and National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 reported Monday, July 5, 2021.
First dose inoculations in the country went up to 8,839,124 as of July 4, data from the National Vaccine Operations Center showed. Of this number, 2,868,905 were given as second dose.
A total of 11,708,029 doses were administered nationwide from March 1 to July 4.
NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon said one million doses were administered in just four days from June 28 to July 1.
In the last seven days to July 4, there were a total of 1,197 public and private sector vaccination sites across the country.
The government is inoculating priority groups A1 (health care workers and others), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities), A4 (workers who need to go out) and A5 (indigent population) against the highly infectious coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
As of July 4, the government has inoculated 1,714,313 individuals under A1, of whom 1,156,220 have completed the two doses.
For A2, 788,630 senior citizens have been fully vaccinated out of the 2,524,204 who received the first dose.
Among persons with comorbidities, or A3, 897,719 have been fully vaccinated out of 2,993,197 who received one dose.
For A4, 1,350,979 have received the first dose but only 26,109 have also received the second dose. Group A4 became eligible for the vaccine only on June 7, although some workers were inoculated as part of the Labor Day celebration on May 1.
Vaccination of A5 also began only in June and only if a local government unit (LGU) has excess vaccines after inoculating the first four priority groups.
As of July 4, 256,431 indigent individuals have received the first dose. Only 227 have been fully vaccinated.
The Philippines has taken delivery of a total of 17,457,810 doses as of June 17, consisting of 12 million doses of the Sinovac inactivated vaccine, 2.556 million doses of the AstraZeneca adenoviral vector vaccine, 2,472,210 doses of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, 249,600 doses of the Moderna mRNA vaccine and 180,000 doses of the Sputnik V adenoviral vector vaccine.
The AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines were donated through Covax, the global initiative aimed to providing equitable access to the vaccines, while one million doses of the Sinovac vaccine were donated by China.
Of the 249,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine, 99,600 were purchased by the private sector.
The rest of the vaccines were procured by the government.
The government targets to inoculate at least 70 percent of the population this year to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19.
In Cebu City, 158,805 residents, or 17.44 percent of almost one million qualified for vaccination, have been inoculated as of July 4, of whom 112,620 have received the first dose and 46,185 have been fully vaccinated.
This is based on the data released by the Cebu Vaccination Statistics (CVS), which monitors all public-private sector vaccination centers in Cebu.
In Metro Cebu, a total of 412,278 individuals, or 15.66 percent of the population, have been vaccinated, of whom 318,960 have received the first dose and 93,318 have been fully vaccinated.
Local government units that comprise the metro continue with their vaccine rollout, especially in Cebu City, which has six vaccination centers, including one that caters to residents of mountain barangays.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said that he has been coordinating with the national government to ensure that the city gets its fair share of vaccines from the national government.
Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, head of the City Health Department, and City Councilor Dave Tumulak, whom the mayor has tasked to monitor the City’s vaccination program, said the 14,920 doses that the Department of Health 7 last delivered will be used up before Friday, July 9.
In Mandaue, the City Government reported that close to 54,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered to its residents.
Of this number, 48,000 were administered as the first dose and 6,000 were administered as the second dose.
August Lizer Malate, head of the Emergency Operations Center, said they’ve stopped injecting the first dose since the 4,000 doses of Sinovac that was last delivered to the City were consumed on Friday, July 2.
He said they expect to receive more vaccines this week, but they don’t know how many.
Malate said they have registered more than 200,000 residents for vaccination. (SunStar Philippines / KFD, PAC / PJB)