After ‘slow’ initial rollout, Galvez expects faster pace for COVID-19 vaccination

Amid surging COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said the government expects the pace of vaccinations to increase to at least half a million jabs per week as early as next month, as more vaccines arrive and as the vaccination drive expands beyond healthcare workers.

During President Rodrigo Duterte's weekly televised briefing on Monday, Galvez said that the government is aiming to vaccinate 500,000 to one million people per week by April and May.

"Sa ngayon po medyo mabagal po tayo dahil ang ating binabakunahan ay mga healthcare workers [Right now our pace is slow because we are vaccinating health workers]," Galvez said.

He explained that hospitals are limiting their vaccinations to 100 health workers a day, to monitor any adverse effects and to make sure that their establishments are well-staffed, especially now that cases are surging.

Galvez said that this target is doable as the country is expecting 2.4 million more vaccine doses from Sinovac and AstraZeneca to arrive before the end of March.

Galvez added that they are targeting to increase vaccinations even more by June and July, likening the Philippines' situation to the US and Indonesia—where, he said, vaccinations were slow in the first two months of the vaccination drive but picked up after rounding the "experience curve."

Galvez provided a chart of the expected vaccine deliveries and the corresponding increase in vaccinations. It shows that the government is targeting 500,000 to one million vaccinations per week in April, one million to two million per week in May, and two million to three million per week in June and July.

Galvez said that the expected steady supply of vaccines the country will receive starting May will help in scaling up vaccinations.

Galvez also provided this breakdown of the roll-out expected vaccine arrivals this year:

The Philippines has so far administered the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine to 336,656 health care workers, three weeks after the arrival of the first legal shipment of vaccines to the country.

As of Monday, there are 671,792 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, after several days of the new daily case number going above 7,000. — BM, GMA News