3M COVID-19 vaccine doses administered as of mid-May —Galvez

Over three million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have already been administered to as of mid-May, according to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. in his latest report to President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Sa ngayon maganda pa rin po ang mga balita natin dahil ang ating pagbabakuna napakataas na po, nasa 3 million,” Galvez said in a taped public briefing aired Tuesday morning.

(We have good news because we've already vaccinated 3 million which is already high.)

According to his presentation, 2,282,273 Filipinos who are part of the A1 to A4 priority groups were already vaccinated as of May 16.

Meanwhile, there are 719,602 Filipinos who belong in the same vaccination groups already got two doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

In total,  3,001,875 Filipinos have been vaccinated against COVID-19 so far, according to Galvez, who expressed optimism that the government can fast-track the vaccination program.

In the same briefing, Galvez told Duterte that the national government was able to vaccinate 1 million Filipinos in just a span of 17 days this May.

“Ang projection po natin ay 2 million this coming May which I believe kayang-kaya [Our projection for May is 2 million which I think is very doable],” he said.

“Kasi nung unang (rollout) natin para tayong nagbe-break in na sasaskyan. Nu’ng march umabot tayo ng 40 days bago maka-isang million. Ganoon din po sa April na 1 million in 30 days. Ngayon nakuha po natin ang 1 million in 17 days at nakita po natin na ‘yung ating volumes [ng bakuna] dumating lang nu’ng May 7,” he added.

(In March and April we hit the one-million mark after 40 and 30 days. But in May we hit it only after 17 days because of the volume of the vaccines that arrived.)

So far, the government has deployed 7,149,020 vaccines out of 7,779,050. A total of 3,784 vaccination sites were also in place, according to Galvez.

The government is targeting the inoculation of 16,424,963 Filipinos in the A1 to A3 vaccination groups.

So far, the government is inoculating the medical frontliners, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, and workers who are considered as economic frontliners. —KBK, GMA News