COVID-19 vaccination of economic frontliners starts June 7 — DOH

Mandaluyong City vaccination site

MANILA, Philippines — The COVID-19 vaccination of economic frontliners under the A4 priority group will start on June 7, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III made the announcement during the arrival of the 1 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sunday.

READ: 1 million more doses of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine arrive in PH

Duque said the government will mark the start of the vaccinations with a ceremonial vaccination at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

“Napakahalaga na sila ay maumpisahan na rin na mabakunahan,” Duque was quoted as saying. (It’s very important that we begin their vaccinations.)

Duque said that the vaccination of the A4 population will primarily be focused on densely populated areas, adjustments will also be made, especially to regions that are also experiencing a surge of new coronavirus cases.

“Dito sa NCR Plus, ito na nagko-constitute ang pinakamalaking negosyo, ekonomiya natin. Pero ‘yung ibang mga regions na may mga surge — Regions 6, 9 and 10, 11, 12, 13, BARMM — naka-ready na sila Sec. Charlie to deploy sa mga high spike areas,” Duque said.

(NCR Plus constitutes our biggest business and economic activity. But in other regions that are experiencing a surge — Regions 6,9, 10, 11, 12, 13, BARMM — Secretary Carlito Galvez is ready to deploy in these high spike areas.)

For his part, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said they are targeting to administer 6 million shots this week.

“Ang target natin ngayong month, magkaroon tayo ng 4 to 5 million na vaccinations, so itong linggo na ito, ang target natin, maka 6 million (jabs) na tayo,” Galvez was quoted as saying.

(Our target this month is to administer four to five million vaccinations, but now, this week, we are looking to have six million jabs.)

Galvez said more than 10 million vaccine doses are set to arrive by the end of the month.

READ: PH expects delivery of 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in June

Galvez earlier said the government is looking to administer 500,000 vaccine doses a day by the third quarter of this year.

The latest available data show that the country has given 5,180,721 vaccine doses.

A total of 1,206,371 vaccinees in the country are now fully vaccinated, while 3,974,350 vaccinees have received their first doses.

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