THE Philippines recorded its highest daily vaccination output on Tuesday, July 27, with 659,029 jabs administered nationwide.
This is the highest number of vaccinations done since the national vaccination program was rolled out in March.
“We are very happy that we were able to achieve milestone after milestone within just a few weeks apart. This shows that we have the capacity and capability to achieve our 500,000 inoculation per day target as long as there’s a steady supply of vaccines arriving in the country,” said Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar.
The NTF earlier announced that the government is eyeing to administer 500,000 doses a day this quarter and 750,000 doses daily in the fourth quarter to ensure the immunization of 77,746,906 Filipinos or 70 percent of the country’s population by year end.
Just last July 22, the Philippines nearly hit its target with 472,356 jabs recorded.
“We applaud our implementing units from the local government and the private sector for remaining committed to carrying out their vaccination rollout as quickly and efficiently as possible, and ultimately, protecting as many people as we can against the disease,” Galvez said.
“We thank our healthcare workers and medical frontliners for continuously working hard to serve the public and joining us in this universal advocacy of saving lives,” he added.
Galvez noted that the latest milestone in the vaccine program is both inspiring and crucial, as the country faces the threat of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
As of July 27, a total of 18,174,405 vaccine doses have been administered, 11.3 million of which were given as the first dose. Meanwhile, more than 6.8 million individuals are now fully vaccinated.
An upward trend in the vaccination output for senior citizens (A2) and persons with comorbidities (A3) has been recorded in the past weeks with the rollout of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines to these sectors.
Fully vaccinated individuals under the A2 and A3 group currently stand at 1,863,955 and 2,382,461, respectively.
Data from the National Vaccine Operations Center also showed that on July 27 the number of second doses being inoculated has more than doubled compared to the first dose. Those who got their first dose is 131,686 while those who got their second doses is 527,343.
“Our objective is to narrow down the gap between the first and second doses,” Galvez emphasized.
Galvez said this is a very good precedent in the vaccine rollout, especially now that vaccine supply inventory continues to increase.
As of July 28, the Philippines has received a total of 31,360,700 COVID-19 vaccine doses from six different manufacturers – AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sinovac, Gamaleya (Sputnik V), Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
More than 27 million doses have now been deployed to various implementing units across the country.
According to Galvez, another 2.5 million doses of national government-procured Sinovac vaccines, and about 415,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the UK government will be added to the country’s supply inventory this week.