Expert: Philippines may get 100M vax doses vs. COVID-19 by October

The Philippines could some 100 million doses of vaccine against COVID-19 as the government scrambles to get more supplies for its national immunization program, the country's vaccine expert said Wednesday.

Well, Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. told us that may be by October we will already have more than a 100 million doses for 50 million FIlipinos,' Dr. Lulu Bravo, executive director of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination, said in a mix English and Filipino.

In the "Balitanghali" interview, Dr. Bravo was pressed on whether vaccine hesitancy is more of an issue than insufficient supply.

Asked about updates on the country's vaccine rollout, Bravo reiterated the government's plan to vaccinate the majority of residents in Metro Manila and other high-risk areas of COVID-19.

She further urged Filipinos to get inoculated at their nearest vaccination center of the more than 4,000 nationwide.

"Nobody knows yet how high efficacy rate is, ang importante magpabakuna tayo (what's important is we get vaccinated)," said Bravo. 

As of June 15, the national government deployed 12,066,680 vaccine doses since it started its COVID-19 immunization program in March.

In addition, a total of 8,407,342 vaccines were administered nationwide. Of the number, 6,253,400 were first dose while 2,153,942 were second dose. —LBG, GMA News