EIGHT weeks after the government officially commenced its vaccine rollout, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez is now eyeing administering more or less 100,000 persons on a daily basis, but only after a Metro Manila-wide rehearsal normally done in film making.
In his presentation of government data on the national deployment of vaccines, Galvez said that 1,353,107 Filipinos have so far been inoculated against COVID-19 since the official rollout of the vaccination program in March.
Referring to his notes, Galvez noted that of this number, 989,703 are health workers, 132,948 classified as senior citizens while 180,315 are those with comorbidities.
According to the vaccine czar, the government is seriously considering the idea of holding vaccine simulations in NCR Plus in June, administering 120,000 shots of COVID-19 vaccines per day to individuals in the area, provided that there is a steady supply of vaccines.
“Our supply chain experts have also provided some sort of simulations wherein the NCR Plus will have a 120,000 jabs a day with the requirement that the NCR should have a steady supply of 3.3 million (doses) monthly,” Galvez said in a joint hearing of the House Committees on Health and Trade and Industry.
“With that, we will designate mega vaccination sites like the malls and the different arenas and gymnasiums,” he added.
The National Capital Region and nearby provinces such as Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and Laguna were earlier placed under enhanced community quarantine after a resurgence of infections.
To date, the Department of Health has recorded a total of 953,106 COVID-19 infections in which 127,006 are active cases. Death toll now stands at 16,141.