Galvez: Vaccinations vs. COVID-19 down last week due to low supply

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. on Monday night said the country reduced its seven-day moving average of daily COVID-19 vaccinated individuals last week due to lack of vaccine supply.

In a briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte and several Cabinet officials, Galvez said the moving average is expected to rebound this week with expected deliveries of 10 million doses this month.

"Mayroon po tayong impending deliveries this June so bumaba po ang ating average vaccination, considering 'yong ating delivery noong last week ng May at tsaka first week of June ay naantala po," Galvez said.

Latest data from the Department of Health showed that the country's seven-day moving average was at 112,621.

"Nagkaroon lang po ng delivery this June 6, kahapon lang po," he said.

An additional one million doses of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the country on Sunday morning.

As of June 6, a total of 1,544,332 people have been fully vaccinated against the respiratory illness and 827,089 of whom are health workers, at least 369,387 are senior citizens while 343,297 are persons with comorbidities, and 4,559 are essential workers.

Meanwhile, a total of 4,421,319 individuals have received their first dose.

Nearly 1.4 million of whom are medical frontliners, 1.5 million are senior citizens, 1.4 million are persons with comorbidities, and 12,259 are essential workers.

Further, Galvez said the government is expected to close a supply agreement with Pfizer.

Once the agreement is finalized, Galvez said a total of 40 million Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses will be delivered in the country.

"More or less 15 million ang madedeliver ng third quarter and the remaining will be on the fourth quarter," he said.

The government started its COVID-19 vaccination program last March 1.

Vaccine brands delivered to the Philippines to date include Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sputnik V.

The country has so far recorded 1,269,478 cases of COVID-19 including 1,188,243 recoveries and 21,898 fatalities. -- BAP, GMA News