Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 1) — More than 1,300 healthcare workers have completed their COVID-19 vaccination one month into the government’s inoculation drive.
The National Task Force Against COVID-19 on Thursday reported that 1,344 medical frontliners have received two doses of vaccines as of Tuesday.
This means only 0.074% of the estimated 1.8 million healthcare workers in the country have been protected against contracting severe COVID-19 and death.
Meanwhile, 737,569 people have gotten their first dose of either vaccines made by Sinovac or AstraZeneca — the only COVID-19 shots available in the country. Sinovac doses are taken 28 days apart, while the two shots of AstraZeneca are taken four to 12 weeks apart.
Despite criticisms on the slow rollout of vaccines, government officials assured that the current pace of the COVID-19 vaccination will rise exponentially once the bulk of the government-procured doses, as well as those from the global initiative COVAX, arrive in the country.
This week, the national government started the “simultaneous vaccination” of the top three priority groups — healthcare workers, elderlies, and people with comorbidities — to speed up immunization efforts.
The Philippines has so far received a total of 2,525,600 vaccine doses through donations and procurement.
VACCINE ROLLOUT UPDATE: 30 March 2021
Read: https://t.co/FEMcwv2KGt#COVID19PH #WeHealAsOnePH #COVIDvaccinePH #ExplainExplainExplain pic.twitter.com/U2wNPOIRNY
— National Task Force Against COVID19 (@ntfcovid19ph) April 1, 2021
