On Sputnik V rollout, Duque renews call to public to get vaccinated vs. COVID-19

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Tuesday compared the vaccine against COVID-19 to rare gold as he once again urged the public to take it as soon as they have the chance.

"Ang bakuna ay ginto dahil kakaunti pa lang ang available para mabakunahan ang 70 million ng ating mga kababayan para sa herd immunity," Duque said during the rollout of Russia's vaccine Sputnik V in Santa Ana Hospital in Manila.

(The COVID-19 vaccine is rare gold because it is hardly available to vaccinate 70 million of our population for herd immunity).

"Kaya nakikiusap po tayo, itong bakunang ito, kapag nagkaroon ng pagkakataon, sunggaban niyo na dahil mahirap makakuha muli dahil limitado ang supply,” he added.

(That is why we appeal to the public to get your COVID-19 vaccine when you get a chance, grab that opportunity because that chance is very hard to come by given the limited supply of the vaccine.)

The Philippines has 3,540,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccine supply so far.
Of this number, 3.5 million doses are Sinovac, 525,600 are AstraZeneca while the remaining are Sputnik V.

Dr. Grace Padilla of Santa Ana Hospital said 70% of their health workers — the first in line in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program — already got their COVID-19 vaccine.

At least 120 of the hospital’s health workers will also be getting inoculated with Sputnik V vaccine.

Based on the Food and Drug Administration’s evaluation, Sputnik V’s efficacy rate is at 91%.

Duque, meanwhile, assured the public that the government is working on securing 140 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from seven different brands within the year.

"We expect the bulk of the vaccine supply to arrive in June until December to achieve herd immunity [within the year]," he said.

The Philippines has 69,466 active COVID-19 cases as of May 3. Of this number, 7,255 new COVID-19 cases were recorded on that date.  —KBK, GMA News