THE government moved closer to its target of 500,000 jabs a day as a total of 472,356 doses of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) were administered nationwide on Thursday, July 22, 2021.
The National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 reported that the number of fully vaccinated individuals in the Philippines increased to 5,560,029 on Thursday.
First dose inoculations also increased to 10,866,238, raising the total number of doses administered in the country to 16,426,267.
“We are now past the crawl and walk stages, as we gradually run towards our goal of inoculating half a million Filipinos per day this quarter. This is a preview of better things to come in the remaining six months of 2021,” NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito G. Galvez Jr. said in a statement Saturday, July 24.
“Despite the inclement weather, our implementing units have remained resilient and are committed to inoculating more Filipinos. We are grateful to all frontliners in the government and the private sector who continue to serve the public despite the many challenges we continue to face,” Galvez added.
As of July 23, the Philippines has received a total of 30,985,130 doses of vaccines against Covid-19, consisting of 17 million doses of Sinovac, 6,858,900 doses of AstraZeneca, 3,034,980 doses of Pfizer, 500,400 doses of Moderna, 350,000 doses of Sputnik V and 3,240,850 doses of Janssen.
Only Janssen is given in a single dose. The rest are given in two doses.
Galvez said around six million doses are still expected to arrive in the last week of the month.
The Philippines has been able to secure a total of 164 million doses for 2021. An additional 26 million doses are under negotiations.
The government is inoculating priority groups A1 (health care workers, mayors, governors and families of health care workers), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities), A4 (workers who need to go out to work) and A5 (indigent).
Galvez earlier said the target for this year has been revised to 77,746,906 fully vaccinated individuals in the Philippines to achieve 70 percent herd immunity against Covid-19.
In Mandaue City, the City’s Vaccine Board admitted that it has failed to reach its target of vaccinating 1,500 persons daily using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Last week, the City received an allocation of 11,250 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
From July 19 to July 23, the City was only able to administer 1,195 doses daily.
He said they need to achieve the target to meet the deadline to distribute the doses.
Ernie Manatad, head of the Vaccine Board, said they’ve been told by the Vaccination Operations Center (VOC) to ask barangays to convince senior citizens to get inoculated.
He said they already tapped officials in the 27 barangays to provide senior citizens with transportation in going to vaccination sites.
All vaccination sites in the city accept accepting walk-ins exclusively for senior citizens, Manatad said.
With the highly transmissible delta variant already in the country, Manatad said their challenge is to expedite the process and to vaccinate as many from the vulnerable sector like senior citizens as they can.
Meanwhile, Manatad reminded the public that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, like all other Covid-19 vaccines, is safe.
Just because it is a single-dose vaccine doesn’t mean it will stronger effects, he said, adding that this is a misconception.
The City’s vaccination sites are located at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex, University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu Mandaue, Pacific Mall, JCentre Mall and Parkmall. They are open from Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. (SunStar Philippines with PR / KFD)