Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 20) — The supply of COVID-19 vaccines is no longer an issue, but vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. also admitted that distribution remains a challenge seven months into the national vaccination program.
During a taped briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte that aired late Tuesday night, Galvez said the country has so far received over 20.2 million doses this month alone.
It is the biggest vaccine delivery compared to previous months, according to him. It included some 7.3 million doses from the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility.
“Right now, supply is not anymore an issue,” Galvez noted. “We have more than 38 million doses in our warehouses.”
However, the government’s immunization program is being tested in terms of logistics in distribution of COVID-19 shots, he said. Galvez explained around 39 million doses remain in the country’s stockpile.
The chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19 said they are addressing this after they observed that deployment of vaccines from warehouses to the inoculation site takes seven to nine days.
In his presentation, he said the country has received over 91.5 million doses and is on track to hit 100 million before the end of October.
Over 24 million individuals have received full protection from COVID-19, according to Galvez.
President Duterte expressed optimism that most cities in the country will hit or surpass the COVID-19 vaccination target before Christmas.
He said 32% of the total target population have been fully vaccinated and they may meet the government’s projections of 50% by the end of 2022.
However, this is still far from the 90% target to achieve the so-called herd immunity.
Galvez said the government will ramp up vaccination by administering 1.5 million shots per day — a far cry from current seven-day average of 388,000 shots daily.
