THE Philippines is set to receive 148 million more doses for the remainder of the year, bringing the country closer to achieving herd immunity, according to the President’s economic team.
On Tuesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said the government’s Covid-19 vaccination program remains on track.
Chua said a total of 38.6 million doses have arrived in the country between February 28 to August 8, 2021. This has allowed the government to continue its vaccination drive.
“For the remainder of 2021, we are expecting the arrival of over 148 million doses of the vaccine. With this, we are optimistic [about inoculating] 70 million Filipinos or the entire adult population by the end of 2021. This is a step closer to achieving herd immunity in the country,” Chua read in a joint statement from the economic team on Tuesday.
Chua said local government units and the private sector were able to efficiently administer vaccines on a wide scale in the past few months.
As of August 8, Chua said a total of 24.5 million doses have been administered. This consists of 13.1 million receiving their first dose and 11.4 million, their second dose.
On August 5, the country’s Socioeconomic Secretary said the country recorded an all-time high of 710,482 jabs in a day.
Meanwhile, in a recent briefing, the Department of Health (DOH) said the Philippines is now classified as “high risk” due to the high number of infections recorded.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also said that over 200 medical facilities nationwide are at critical risk while in the National Capital Region (NCR), 25 health-care facilities are also under critical risk.
Vergeire said the increase in cases was seen in the last week of July and exceeded the seven-day moving average.
Average daily reported cases: August 2 to 8: 8,829, July 26 to August 1: 7,029, July 19 to 25: 5,769, July 12 to 18: 4,989, and cases peaked on April 9 to 15: 10,845.