UK DONATION. National Task Force Against Covid-19 chief Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. (right) and British Ambassador Daniel Pruce place the 'Resbakuna' seal on the shipment of 415,040 doses of United Kingdom-donated AstraZeneca at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay City on Monday (Aug. 2, 2021). The first tranche of the AstraZeneca delivery is part of the UK's commitment to provide 100 million vaccines for developing countries, including the Philippines. (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)
MANILA – Beating the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic is possible with more vaccines and participation in the inoculation program.
National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 Chief Implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., is thus optimistic that the Philippines will be able to surpass the challenges brought by the more transmissible Delta variant as long as vaccines continue to arrive.
"Kinaka-usap na po natin ang ating mga kababayan na (we are asking our countrymen that) we need to act together and we can beat the Delta variant when we act together," Galvez said during a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday.
The national vaccination program, Galvez said, is made possible by the services of the Department of Health (DOH) and local government units (LGUs).
The Philippines has so far administered 20,863,544 doses nationwide.
"I am very proud to present that we were able to breach 20 million doses administered. With the help of our DOH and LGU, nakita po natin na-break natin ‘yung record natin at saka objective natin (we have seen that we broke the record and beat our objective)," he said.
Galvez said there has been a significant increase in the daily vaccination rate, with up to 523,081 doses and a total of 3,661,123 jabs used up for the past seven days.
Vaccine hesitancy among senior citizens and persons with co-morbidities still persists, according to data, but the government continues to address the issue through an information campaign, Galvez said.
To date, the Philippines has received 34,275,740 doses of Covid-19 jabs from Sinovac, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Gamaleya Research Institute, Johnson&Johnson, and Moderna, both donated and procured by the government and the private sector.
Over 22.7 million doses are expected in August.
“It would be a huge step to meet the growing demand for vaccines within the regions and provinces nationwide,” Galvez added. (PNA)
