DOH: Over 786,000 fully vaccinated against COVID-19

The Philippines has fully vaccinated 786,528 individuals against COVID-19 as of May 18, over two and a half months since the launch of its inoculation campaign, the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday.

Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said a total of 3,299,470 doses have been administered across 1,129 active vaccination sites.

Over 2.5 million of this number were administered as first doses, 1,240,119 of which went to health workers, 714,312 to senior citizens, 548,844 to persons with comorbidities, and 9,667 to essential workers.

Among the individuals who have received both shots, 453,266 are health workers, 110,290 are senior citizens, 222,780 are persons with comorbidities, and 192 are essential workers.

In a separate bulletin, the DOH said 99% of the 7.8 million doses delivered to the country have been distributed to vaccination sites.

The seven-day average of daily vaccinated individuals also stood at 108,540, the highest recorded so far.

Meanwhile, Cabotaje said the vaccination of essential workers and indigents in June will be concentrated in Metro Manila and eight other COVID-19 hotspots only. 

She added that more vaccines will be deployed to areas seeing a spike in infections. 

Authorities have also decided to scrap the disclosure of available vaccine brands prior to inoculation to prevent overcrowding at vaccination sites. 

Earlier in the day, experts from the OCTA Research group urged the government to allocate 90% of vaccines to Metro Manila and inoculate 200,000 people in the capital region daily to achieve its targets by Christmas. — BM, GMA News