Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, director of Philippine General Hospital, is first to receive the China-donated CoronaVac as the Philippines rolls out its vaccination drive on Monday. At right, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and head of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, joins government officials inoculated during simultaneous programs in several hospitals in Metro Manila. (PHOTOS COURTESY OFMANILA PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE AND PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS OPERATIONS OFFICE)
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has so far administered a total of 193,492 COVID-19 vaccine doses amid the rising number of infections, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.
The government has so far received a total of 1,125,600 COVID-19 vaccines doses, according to Dr. Beverly Ho, concurrent Director IV of the DOH’s Health Promotion Bureau and Disease Prevention and Control Bureau.
“So far we have administered a total of 193,492 doses in the country, and 90 percent of our stocks have already been distributed to the vaccination sites,” Ho said a press briefing.
Ho added that vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III are set to present data on the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program to President Rodrigo Duterte this afternoon.
The country kicked off its vaccination drive on March 1, following the arrival of 600,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccine from Sinovac Biotech which were donated by the Chinese government.
On March 4, 487,200 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from British-Swede firm AstraZeneca arrived in the country, followed by another set of 38,400 doses that arrived on March 7.
The AstraZeneca vaccines were provided to the Philippines through Covax, a global vaccine sharing pool.
Healthcare frontliners are being prioritized to receive the available vaccine doses.
Galvez earlier said that some 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, composed of 1 million doses of procured CoronaVac and 400,000 doses donated by the Chinese government, are set to arrive in the Philippines this March.
The vaccination rollout for the general public is expected to start between late April and early May, according to Galvez.