A TOTAL of 9,628 new Covid-19 were logged on Monday by the Department of Health (DOH), bringing the total number of infections in the country to 945,745.
As of 4 p.m. of April 19, the DOH also recorded 9,266 recoveries and 88 deaths.
Of the total number of cases, 14.9 percent (141,375) are active, 83.4 percent (788,322) have recovered, and 1.70 percent (16,048) have died.
Moreover, 19 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
Four laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System on April 18, 2021.
3rd in Asean jabs drive
The Philippines ranked third among Asean countries with the most number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered, an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.
This, as DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, who chairs the national Covid-19 vaccine operation center, also said that before the end of the month, 1 million doses (500,000 doses on April 22 and another 500,000 doses on April 29) of Sinovac’s “CoronaVac” will arrive.
The country expects also the arrival of 480,000 doses of Gamaleya’s Sputnik V vaccines by the end of the month but an initial of 20,000 doses are expected to arrive early.
Cabotaje said there is also an “indication” that 194,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines will arrive by the end of the month. About 2.5 million doses of CoronaVac and 900,000 AstraZeneca are also expected to be delivered next month from the Covax Facility.
Meanwhile, Cabotaje said over 1.4 million doses of vaccines have been administered already.
In her presentation during the DOH media forum, the country ranked 3rd behind Indonesia and Singapore in vaccine rollout in the Asean, based on Bloomberg and reports from Foreign Service Posts (as of April 14):
■ Indonesia—Sinovac, AstraZeneca, started January 13-21; 15,811,44 doses administered
■ Singapore—Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, started December 30-20; with 1,667,522 doses administered
■ Philippines—Sinovac, AstraZeneca, started March 1 -21; administered 1,456,793 doses
Asked why the ranking was based on doses administered and not on the percentage of vaccinated individuals per population, Cabotaje replied in Filipino, “That is what they are using as an indicator internationally.”
She explained that they just supplied the data.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also echoed Cabotaje by saying, “It is their strategy. It is not our system.”
“Actually they are the ones dictating…will it be percentage? Or actual number? It’s the system,” Vergeire reiterated.
Cabotaje said a total of 1,264,811 have received the first dose while 191,982 got vaccinated for the second dose as of April 17 in 3,155 vaccination sites across the country.
Of this number, 960,191 workers in frontline health services received the first dose (191,982 – second dose), 128,018 are senior citizens (first dose), and 176,305 individuals with comorbidity (first dose).