Vaccination of general public by August —Galvez

The Philippines is eyeing to start the COVID-19 vaccination of the general public by August, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said Wednesday night.

"Sa August, we are targeting na 'pag dumagsa na ang ating mga vaccine, puwede na tayong magkaroon ng general public vaccination," Galvez said in a televised briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte and several Cabinet officials.

(By August, we are targeting to start the vaccination of the general public once vaccines arrive.)

Galvez's projections for when vaccinations for the general population can begin has moved back more than once. Last month, the vaccine czar expressed confidence that the general population would start getting their COVID-19 shots in late April or early May.

Then earlier this month, Galvez said that the inoculation of the general public could start in July. 

Now, Galvez said they are targeting to finish vaccinating those under priority groups A1 to A3 by July.

"Hopefully kapag mayroon na po tayong volume sa June, sisimulan na po natin 'yong A4 at tsaka A5," he added.

As of April 27, the Philippines has fully vaccinated 246,986 individuals against COVID-19 nearly two months since the launch of the inoculation campaign, the Department of Health said.

In its latest vaccine statistics bulletin, the Department of Health reported that 1,562,815 people have received their first dose of the Sinovac or AstraZeneca vaccines.

A total of 1,809,801 doses have been administered at 3,415 vaccination sites across the country.

The DOH also reported that 86% or 3,025,600 out of the 3,525,600 doses delivered to the country have been distributed to vaccination sites.

The country has so far recorded 1,020,495 cases of COVID-19 including 935,695 recoveries, 10,739 deaths, and 67,769 active cases. — BM, GMA News