MANILA, Philippines — The government aims to vaccinate against COVID-19 a total of 25 million Filipinos considered as the most vulnerable to achieve herd containment by September this year, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the country’s vaccine manager, said Monday.
These 25 million will be composed of health care workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities.
“We’re saying that we should have a better Christmas. So what we’re doing is we’re focusing on 25 million Filipinos who are considered as the most vulnerable,” Galvez said, speaking partly in Filipino, during the pre-recorded briefing of President Rodrigo Duterte.
If this could be achieved, deaths due to COVID-19 would be reduced, Galvez added.
Meanwhile, the government aims to vaccinate 58 million to 70 million Filipinos by November to achieve herd immunity.
Galvez said the government was aiming to eventually immunize 110 million Filipinos, including children, to eliminate COVID-19 in the country.
He said the government had been focusing its vaccination program in areas considered as “economic centers,” which are also considered as “vulnerable” against COVID-19.
These include Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Batangas, Pampanga, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao — all of which would receive a steady supply of vaccines.
The coverage of the focus will then expand to four other regions — Central Luzon, Southern Luzon, Northern Mindanao, and Caraga — and the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, Zamboanga, Bacolod, Iloilo, General Santos, and Iligan.
With this, the government would only need to inoculate at least 58.6 million Filipinos to achieve herd immunity in these areas.
So far, the government has administered over four million COVID-19 vaccine shots out of the 7.5 million total doses that the Philippines has so far received.
Over 1.9 million doses have been administered as the first dose while 451,270 shots have been administered as the second dose.