42.6M COVID-19 vaccine doses still needed to meet demand —Galvez

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. on Thursday said 42.6 million doses are still needed to meet the demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines.

In a briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte and several Cabinet officials, Galvez said the projected vaccine eligible population is 70,851,828 Filipinos.

He said the gap between supply and demand is 42.6 million doses.

So far, Galvez said, the country has 31,360,700 doses or 17,300,775 treatments for two doses.

"'Yong gap po natin, malaki po talaga ang pagkukulang," he said.

[We really have a large gap.]

"We are expecting to meet the demand over the supply October pa," Galvez admitted.

He added that the country needs to increase its supply deliveries in order to achieve the demand of the different local government units.

"Hinihingi namin ang patience ating mga LGUs at ng ating mga provincial governors at cities kasi kulang na kulang pa ang ating mga vaccine," Galvez said.

[We are asking for patience from the local governments and our provincial governors and cities because our vaccine supply is still lacking.]

"Although malaki ang deliveries in volume, in reality, kung open up natin sa A1 to A5 ay kulang na kulang po ang vaccine in terms of actual doses," he added.

[Even though the deliveries by volume are large, if we open up the vaccinations to the categories from A1 to A5, we will be greatly lacking in terms of actual doses.]

Galvez added that the Department of Health and the National Task Force have recommended concentrating on categories A1, A2, and A3—health workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities—to achieve "population protection for the vulnerable sector."

A total of 17,202,421 doses have been administered as of July 25, the Department of Health said.

Of this number, 11,113,107 shots were for the first dose while 6,089,314 were for the second dose.

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

The country has so far reported 1,566,667 cases of COVID-19 including 1,484,714 recoveries and 27,401 deaths. — BM, GMA News