BY GERARD NAVAL and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
ALMOST four months since the national vaccination program started, some 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
COVID-19 vaccines that the Philippines has received are given in two doses. As of yesterday, the country has a supply of 17.455 million doses of China and US-made vaccines, donated and bought by the government and private sector.
The government targets to vaccinate about 50 million to 70 million Filipinos by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity. It is procuring 148 million doses of vaccines this year.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III administered the 10 millionth dose to 74-year-old Nieves Catacutan, a senior citizen, during a ceremony at the Valenzuela Astrodome yesterday.
Also present in the event were National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., NTF deputy implementer and testing czar Vivencio Dizon, and Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian.
Galvez said the government now averages 250,000 jabs a day and has reached a high of 348,000 a day.
He said with the arrival of more vaccines in July, the country is expected to reach its target of 500,000 a day and eventually get closer to its goal of achieving population protection and herd immunity within the year.
Data released by the DOH yesterday showed that a since March 1 when t he vaccination program was launched, 10,065,414 doses have been administered since March 1.
“A total of 2,527,286 have already completed the required two doses,” the DOH said. “A total of 7,538,128 have received their first doses.
Broken down into priority groups, 1,669,660 healthcare workers, who belong to the A1 priority group in the vaccination list have received the first dose and 1,131,498 the second dose.
Also completing two doses are 672,602 senior citizens (A2), 710,846 from the A3 group (people with comorbidities), 12,340 from A4 (frontline workers).
Among those in the A5 group, or the poor sector, about 184,000 have received the first dose.
The DOH urged anew all eligible individuals to have themselves vaccinated.
The government received an additional 1.249 million doses of vaccines from Moderna and Sinovac on Sunday and Monday, respectively.
Ambassador to Canada Rodolfo Robles said the country is expected to benefit from excess vaccines bought by Canada which will donate these to several countries before the year ends.
Robles said Canada has bought over 180 million doses of vaccines and only has over 40 million population, which means it has an excess of about 100 million doses.
He said Canada is expected to complete its vaccination in the fourth quarter of the year and donate the excess vaccines then.
Robles said aside from this, Quebec-based biotechnology firm Medicago is looking at the possible establishment of a vaccine manufacturing plant in the Philippines.
He said Medicago is planning to put up plants in three countries and he had suggested an area in Bulacan in the Philippines. He said “negotiations are (currently) in progress.”
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles reassured the public of the safety and effectiveness of all vaccines available in the country, including CoronaVac made by China’s Sinovac Biotech, saying these passed the Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization.
He also said verification is being done to determine if the vaccines from Sinovac had anything to do with the death of at least 20 health workers in Indonesia who have completed their Sinovac doses, or if they have other conditions that may have contributed to it.
He said the government is monitoring the developments.
MAKATI INCIDENT
The DOH, in a statement, said a failed administration of the COVID vaccine, vaccine, as seen in a video that has gone viral, is a “clear breach of protocol” but said the mistake has been rectified.
The video showed the vaccinator failed to push the syringe.
“The vaccination site was quick to address the mistake and she was successfully vaccinated after showing the video to the vaccination team,” said the DOH.
Despite this, the health department said it will be conducting a probe of the incident to ensure it is not repeated.
Dizon said Makati Mayor Abigail Binay said the incident happened in the city and the nurse involved was a volunteer.
“It was clearly an isolated case of a healthcare worker who’s really very, very tired at that time,” Dizon said.
Binay apologized for the incident which she said happened last June 25.
She also urged everyone to be more understanding instead of criticizing the nurse who had volunteered her services.
POLITICS ANGLE
Local chief executives from the Visayas and Mindanao, who will seek assistance from Vice President Leni Robredo to expand her COVID-19 vaccine express project in their regions, should not be accused of siding with the opposition leader because there is no politics behind it, said deputy speaker Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City.
Rodriguez there is nothing wrong with local government units (LGUs) seeking assistance from the Vice President because the welfare of the people “should be prioritized and not politicking.”
“Walang pulitika dito (there’s no politics there) because [the number of] cases in Cagayan de Oro is still very high, Davao City is still very high same with Zamboanga, Butuan City in Mindanao, Iloilo and Bacolod City in Visayas and Albay in Bicol. I asked VP Leni (for help) pero walang pulitika dito (but there’s no politics here),” the lawmaker said in an radio interview with RMN.
Robredo earlier said the Office of the Vice President is “very much willing” to bring its vaccine express hubs project to the Visayas and Mindanao after Rodriguez personally requested for it in light of the surge in the number of cases in his province.
The OVP rolled out its first drive-through vaccination site at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila Tuesday last week in partnership with the city government.
Robredo has admitted that many LGU leaders are thinking twice about partnering with her because they do not want to be accused of playing politics with her being the leader of the opposition.
Rodriguez Robredo’s express or drive-through vaccine program is a “noble” initiative and saw nothing wrong in seeking the Vice President’s assistance, hoping that it will accelerate the vaccination effort in his province.
He noted that so far, there are only 70,000 residents vaccinated in Cagayan de Oro, a far cry as compared to that in Manila with 600,000 vaccinated residents while other provinces continue to lag behind. — With Wendell Vigilia
