The Philippines received one million additional doses of government-procured vaccine yesterday that will be distributed to areas with high Covid-19 cases, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao.
National Task Force against Covid-19 chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III welcomed the arrival of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccines on board Cebu Pacific flight 5J671 that arrived at 7:22 a.m. at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City.
Galvez, also the country’s vaccine czar, said majority of the additional batch of Sinovac vaccines will be distributed to areas in the Visayas and Mindanao upon the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The President would also like other areas, especially those with high cases, to be given the vaccines, like Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan and other areas like Region 6,” he said in a press briefing.
With the arrival of one million doses of Sinovac jab, Galvez said the government is looking to administer 4 to 5 million more doses of Covid-19 vaccine before the end of June.
“Our target for this month is to have 4 to 5 million vaccinations,” he said.
He said the government has, so far, administered nearly 6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
“We have vaccinated some 5.9 million, we are nearing the six million mark,” he said. “This coming week, supposed to be, our target is to reach 6 million doses,” Galvez said.
The country has, so far, received 9.3 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, including 6.5 million Sinovac jabs.
Galvez said more vaccines, that are set to arrive in the coming days, will be deployed to the National Capital Region Plus 8, composed of Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.
Aside from China-made CoronaVac, other vaccine brands in the country’s inventory include AstraZeneca from UK, Sputnik V of Russia), and Pfizer from the United States.
ECONOMIC FRONTLINERS
Duque said the vaccination of the economic frontliners, both from the private and public sectors under the A4 category beginning today, will help boost economic recovery.
“They are the so-called economic frontliners. So, it is very important that we start their inoculation,” Duque said.
The government is set to conduct a symbolic vaccination rollout for economic frontliners at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City today.
About 30 million Filipinos will benefit under the A4 category from June to November.*PNA
