Manila vaccinates ‘record’ 1.6m people in a week

MANILA: The Philippines registered a “record high” of administering over 1.6 million doses in just a week since it rolled out its nationwide inoculation campaign to prevent the spread of the coronavirus on March 1, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Monday.

In its report, the DOH confirmed: “The total doses administered in the 17th week of our national vaccination ( programme) reached a record high of 1,638,072 doses.”

It added this stood in sharp contrast to the measly 37,380 doses administered when the programme started.

As of June 27, a total of 10.06 million doses have been administered nationwide, including 7.5 million COVID-19 shots for first timers, the DOH said. On the other hand, it said 2.5 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated, meaning they already completed their second jabs.

At the same time, DOH data indicated that there had been a sharp rise in the number of Filipinos going to vaccination centres and logging an average of 236,867 individuals getting their COVID-19 jabs daily in the last seven days.

Meanwhile, Secretary Carlito Galvez, the vaccine czar, announced the country received its initial batch of Moderna vaccines totaling 249,000 doses on Sunday. He said that of the total, 150,000 doses would go to the government while the remaining 99,000 doses were procured by businessman Enrique Razon.

The country’s vaccine supply also rose with the arrival on Monday of one million doses from China’s Sinovac vaccine, bringing the total of the country’s stock of this Chinese brand to 12 million doses, Galvez said.

He also confirmed that the Philippines has a total of 17.4 million doses for all brands — Astrazeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, Sputnik V and Sinovac — intended to ramp up its vaccination campaign, particularly for areas outside Metro Manila which have been experiencing a surge in virus infections.

On Sunday, the DOH logged an additional 6,096 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, pushing the nationwide tally to 1.4 million. The death toll hit 24,372 from 128 new fatalities while recoveries stood at 1.3 million from 6,912 new survivors.

The DOH also reported that Metro Manila, which used to be classified as the pandemic epicentre, has logged significant reduction in the COVID-19 infections in the 16 cities and one town that compose the “megalopolis.”

But Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega cautioned the 12 million residents against complacency, citing in particular the discovery of COVID-19 variants which could cause a spike in cases.