Govt eyes 90M Pinoys jabbed by June 2022

The government aims to vaccinate 90 million Filipinos against Covid-19 by June 2022, National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said.

So far, 52,393,229 Filipinos have been fully vaccinated while 61,902,516 have received at least one dose.

Included in the target is the administering of the primary series, or first dose, of the vaccine to around 28 million to 30 million citizens.

The government also plans to administer around 72 million booster shots for the adult population and 12.74 million individuals aged 12 to 17.

“’Yung 100 million doses na nasa stockpile po natin ay sapat sa remaining primary series ng unvaccinated at para sa 25 million na eligible ngayong quarter for boosters (The 100 million doses we have in our stockpile are enough for the remaining primary series for the unvaccinated and for the 25 million eligible this quarter for boosters),” Galvez said during President Rodrigo Duterte’s prerecorded “Talk to the People” public briefing late Monday night.

He said that the government needs to procure 17 million doses for boosters and 26 million doses for children.

The pandemic task force aims to start inoculating children aged 0 to 4 also by the second quarter of the year.

The vaccination of children 5 to 11 years old, meanwhile, may start by the end of this month.

“We are now making some contingencies to acquire doses that we need to include ages 0 to 4,” Galvez noted.

Duterte earlier renewed his appeal to the still vaccine-hesitant members of the population to get jabbed amid the rising Covid-19 cases.

“It will save you from death,” he said.

The President also reiterated his order to the National Vaccination Operations Center to ramp up inoculation efforts outside the National Capital Region (Metro Manila) immediately to ensure the public’s protection from the severe onset of Covid-19 symptoms, hospitalization or even death.