4.7 million Filipinos have received booster shots, but that’s still a ‘low’ number – Galvez

A family rides past a vaccination facility at Quirino Grandstand for a picnic at Luneta in Manila. (File photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Some 4.7 million Filipinos have so far received their booster shots, but this number remains “low,” Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the national vaccine manager, said during the weekly “Talk to the People” of President Rodrigo Duterte that aired on Monday.

Galvez said the country is eyeing to provide booster shots for 72.16 million adult population by the end of the year.

However, so far, only 4,765,771 have received their booster shots.

“In our analysis, this is low because we almost simultaneously launched the vaccination of children. There are more than eight million children,” Galvez said in Filipino.

According to him, the government has an average of 267,900 doses administered for boosters daily.

“We need to double our output to 500,000 doses per day,” Galvez said.

To achieve the target of 72.16 million booster doses this year, he said the government would need to concentrate on bolstering vaccination in Metro Manila and other areas that have a more than 70 percent fully vaccinated population.

There should also be an expansion of vaccination sites for boosters, he added.

ATM