The Duterte government is on track to vaccinate Filipino frontliners, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque, who said today that they aim to jab at least 450,000 medical workers each day by April.
“We’re looking at 4,500 vaccination sites with each site vaccinating 100 individuals. So we’re looking at about 450,000 vaccinees per day,” the controversial health secretary said in an interview with the news program Headstart.
The Philippines has received about 1.1 million doses of donated COVID-19 vaccines, composed of 600,000 CoronaVac doses from China and 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca from the COVAX facility. Duque said that in April, about 900,000 doses of additional AstraZeneca will arrive in the Philippines, as well as 1.4 million vials of CoronaVac.
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“That should already suffice to complete the vaccination of the most prioritized group of healthcare workers. Once we are done, we will inoculate senior citizens because they are the most vulnerable among sectors. We need to prioritize 9.7 million senior citizens,” Duque, who has been urged to resign by politicians and the public alike, added.
The country’s “vaccine czar” Carlito Galvez Jr. said today that at least 240,000 medical workers have been vaccinated against COVID, and that all 1.7 million of them will be jabbed by mid-April. He added that vaccination for the public might begin by May.
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