By Pearl Gumapos
Testing czar and National Task Force against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer Sec. Vince Dizon on Thursday (Aug. 19) said they are anticipating to meet 30 million jabs administered by Friday, Aug. 20.
As of Aug. 18, 29,127,240 vaccines have been administered–16,250,043 are first doses while 12,877,197 are second doses.
“Sa loob lamang ng 20 araw ng buwan ng Agosto ay naka-10 milyon tayo [na bakunang naiturok]. Pinipilit nating itaas ‘yang [daily jab rate], pero ‘yung target natin na 50% ng eligible population na fully vaccinated, kampante tayo na maaabot natin by Aug. 31,” Dizon said in a Malacañang public briefing.
According to Dizon, more than 3 million doses have been administered in the National Capital Region (NCR) as of Aug. 18 and that 41% of NCR’s eligible population is now fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, Dizon said the average COVID-19 tests conducted in the past 7 days is 60,000 tests per day.
“Umabot tayo ng 67,000 sa isang araw. Kailangan tayong makipag-ugnayan sa ating PhilHealth dahil kailangan din pong ma-reimburse ang ating mga laboratoryo ng kanilang mga itine-test, lalo na sa mga kababayan natin na libre dapat,” Dizon said.
Dizon also said they will soon meet with Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairperson Prospero De Vera to discuss whether medical students can be deployed as vaccinators, especially in areas experiencing case surge. -rir
