Duque: PH can attain herd immunity within a year if 450K vaccinated daily

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines could achieve herd immunity of 70 million vaccinated people within a year if it can inoculate 450,000 a day, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Monday.

“That (achieving herd immunity) is dependent on the supply of the vaccines. If we have the 140 million thereabouts of doses of vaccines, it would probably take 11 to 12 months to do that,” Duque said in a media forum. “Perhaps five to six months for the first dose and four to five months for the second dose.”

The forum was held following the launch of the European Union’s three-year grant worth P130 million to support the Philippines’ pandemic response.

To reach this goal, Duque also said there should also be 4,500 vaccination sites catering to 100 vaccine recipients per day.

“So that’s 450,000 a day. So you divide 70 million Filipinos to be vaccinated equivalent to herd immunity, it will take you about 159 days and if you divide that by 26 days, assuming Sundays are off, so that’s six days a week, so you’ll do it in five to six months for the first dose and four to five months for the second dose,” he explained.

As of March 13, the government’s COVID-19 inoculation program has vaccinated 193,492 individuals, Duque said. The new coronavirus vaccination drive in the country started March 1 after  China’s donation of 600,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac arrived.

“That comprises 34 percent of our 1.125 million vaccines that have arrived,” he noted.

On March 4, some 487,200 doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca arrived in the country, followed by an additional 38,400 doses on March 7.

The AstraZeneca vaccines were provided to the Philippines through Covax Facility, a global vaccine sharing pool led by the World Health Organization.

Health care workers are being prioritized in the vaccine rollout but the vaccination for the general public is expected to start between late April and early May.

KGA