Saturday, June 5, 2021

‘Di lang sa NCR mapupunta! Galvez: Zamboanga, CDO to get share of 1M new COVID-19 jabs

The Philippines on Sunday received 1 million additional doses of government-procured vaccine to be distributed in areas with high Covid-19 cases, particularly in Visayas and Mindanao.

National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III welcomed the arrival of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccines on board Cebu Pacific flight 5J671 that arrived at 7:22 a.m. at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City.

Galvez, also the country’s vaccine czar, said majority of the additional batch of Sinovac vaccine will be distributed to areas in Visayas and Mindanao upon the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“The President would also like other areas especially those with high cases to be given the vaccines, like Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan and other areas like Region 6 (Western Visayas),” he said in a press briefing.

With the arrival of 1 million doses of Sinovac jab, Galvez said the government is looking to administer 4 to 5 million more doses of Covid-19 vaccine before the end of June.

“Our target for this month is to have 4 to 5 million vaccinations,” he said.

He said the government has so far administered nearly 6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

“We have vaccinated some 5.9 million, we are nearing the 6 million mark,” he said. “This coming week, supposed to be, our target is to reach 6 million (doses),” Galvez said.

The country has so far received 9.3 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, including 6.5 million Sinovac jabs.

Galvez said more vaccines, that are set to arrive in the coming days, will be deployed to National Capital Region (NCR) Plus 8.

The NCR Plus 8 area is composed of Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.

Aside from China-made CoronaVac, other Covid-19 vaccine brands in the country’s inventory include AstraZeneca (UK), Sputnik V (Russia), and Pfizer (US). (PNA)