MANILA, Philippines — Vaccine czar Carilito Galvez has insisted that the Philippines is not lagging behind neighboring countries in the vaccination drive despite a “very limited “supply of COVID-19 jabs.
In a House hearing, he pointed out to lawmakers the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses so far administered by the government to justify his stance on the issue.
“Di po tayo nangungulelat [We are not lagging behind]. Nasa upper third po tayo [ng ranking] sa vaccination program even though our supply is very limited during this first quarter and second quarter,” Galvez told lawmakers as he briefed the House trade and health panels on the government’s inoculation program.
According to him, the Philippines so far ranks 4th among Southeast Asian countries in the number of vaccine doses administered to its citizens following Indonesia with over 17 million, Singapore with more than 2.2 million, and Myanmar with 1.74 million.
“Before, we were third, but Myanmar surpassed us,” Galvez noted. The ranking he presented was based on Bloomberg as well reports coming from foreign service posts.
“For the information of the members of the Congress, we started late. Vietnam..started late with us. But now we are on the 4th,” he added.
Citing data from the Department of Health, Galvez also said the Philippines ranks 42nd out of 174 countries in the world and 15th out of 47 Asian countries in the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered.
In the same briefing, Galvez said over 1.3 million Filipinos of the 70-million inoculation target of the government for 2021 have so far been vaccinated.
Of this number, more than 200,000 healthcare workers have already received their second dose of COVID-19 shots.
In total, the government has administered over 1.5 million vaccine doses, taking into account the second dose given to the 200,000 medical frontliners, according to Galvez.