PH has so far vaccinated 44,000 against COVID-19 – Galvez

MANILA, Philippines — Over 44,000 vaccine doses against COVID-19 have so far been administered in the Philippines since it started its immunization program last week, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the vaccine czar, said Monday in a pre-recorded briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte.

According to Galvez, the global vaccination figure has reached 300 million, with seven million people being vaccinated per day.

“We are happy that the Philippines is part of those numbers and that we have already administered more or less 44,000 doses,” he said, speaking partly in Filipino.

Galvez said many people were requesting “almost every day” allocations of the vaccines, an indication of their willingness to get immunized against the deadly respiratory disease.

“When we had the vaccination of hospital directors, their level of confidence increased,“ he said.

The Philippines kicked off its COVID-19 vaccination program last Monday, after the arrival of 600,000 doses of CoronaVac, the vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac BioTech.

The first to get vaccinated was the director of the Philippine General Hospital, Dr. Gerardo “Gap” Legaspi.

Also last week, over 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered.

Earlier, Malacañang said more than 29,000 individuals had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

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