PH posts highest daily jab rate, expects faster rollout

Residents wait for their turn to be vaccinated against COVID-19 at a vaccination facility in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur. (Photo courtesy of Vigan City government)

MANILA, Philippines — The country recorded its highest daily vaccination against COVID-19 on Nov. 11, the second straight day that inoculation breached the 1-million mark.

According to data from the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC), a total of 1,239,981 doses were administered on Thursday: 698,500 (56.3 percent) as a first dose and 541,481 (43.7 percent) as a second dose.

The day earlier, there was a total of 1,052,600 COVID-19 jabs nationwide.

“The upward trajectory of our daily jab rate, along with the downtrend in the number of COVID-19 cases, [is] solid proof that we are on the right track to a sustainable recovery,” National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said in a statement on Friday.

“We are very pleased to see that the hard work, determination and concerted effort from all sectors of society [have] paid dividends and [are] bringing us closer to our goal of achieving [a] 1.5 million daily jab rate,” he added.

Target

NVOC data showed that as of Thursday, more than 31 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 since March, when the vaccination rollout began. This accounts for 28.15 percent of the country’s population of more than 110 million.

The average daily doses administered in the past seven days stood at 748,839.

At this pace, it would take 111 days to fully vaccinate the target 70 percent of the population.

The government, however, recalibrated its target to about 50 million, which could be achieved by year-end even at the current daily vaccination rate.

Since February, 121,979,340 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the country, both donated to and procured by the government.

The country is expecting the arrival of 46 million more doses, according to Galvez.

The vaccine czar expressed optimism that the growing vaccine inventory would be complemented by a more aggressive rollout among the local governments.

‘The same page’

“Everyone is now on the same page. This is because we share the same goal—our local chief executives, our business sector, and our health-care workers—to have a merry Christmas and prosperous 2022,” Galvez said.

“This is why we believe that the … support coming from all levels of government as well as from the private sector should not waver and continue to intensify as we scale up our vaccination drive,” he added.