A health worker prepares a dose of Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine during a vaccination for residents in Mandaluyong on July 15, 2021. (File photo by TED ALJIBE / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — About 42.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are still needed to meet the demand for immunization in the Philippines, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the national vaccine manager, said Thursday in a taped briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte.
So far the Philippines has received 31.3 million doses — which is only enough to inoculate about 17.3 million individuals, while the projected number of people eligible for vaccination is about 70.8 million, Galvez said.
“Our gap, our lack, is still big,” he said in Filipino. “There’s a gap of 42.6 million between supply and demand. We are expecting to meet the demand over the supply in October.”
The national government would also need to increase its vaccine deliveries to meet the demand of local government units (LGUs).
“We’re asking for the patience of the LGUs and provincial governors and cities because we really still have a shortfall of vaccines,” Galvez said.
“Although the deliveries are gib in volume, in reality, if we open [vaccination] to all [priority groups from] A1 to A5 we have a big shortfall in vaccines in terms of actual doses,” he added.
According to him, the Philippines is still expecting 132 million COVID-19 vaccine doses — either bought or donated — to arrive in the next six months.
But to maximize the available supply, the government recommends focusing on the immunization of those in priority groups A1 to A3 — medical frontliners, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities — to achieve “population protection” among the “vulnerable sector,” Galvez said.
So far, the Philippines has administered 18.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, of which 11.3 million are first doses while the rest are second doses.