By Christine Fabro
About 1.5 million doses from the 2.028 million COVAX-donated AstraZeneca vaccine doses that arrived on Friday (July 9) will be allotted for the second shot of individuals who received their first dose of COVID-19 in May and June.
Some 500,000 doses will be sent to regions with large populations who fall under priority groups A2 and A3, National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. said in a statement on Saturday (July 11).
“Our vaccine supply from [COVAX facility] will be utilized for our vulnerable sector, A1 [healthcare workers and their families], A2 [senior citizens], and A3 [persons with comorbidities], while prioritizing those vulnerable communities in different regions,” Galvez said.
As of July 8, at least 861,560 of the country’s 8,274,916 senior citizens have been fully vaccinated, while 2,632,861 have received their first dose.
Meanwhile, 3,184,933 of the 7,085,183 individuals who fall under the A3 priority group have been inoculated with their first dose, while 1,039,710 have completed their vaccination.
To date, the Philippines has received a total of 20,607,570 doses from different manufacturers.
More than 10.4 million doses were government-procured, seven million doses were sourced from the COVAX facility, more than two million doses came from bilateral donations, while the rest were initial deliveries of LGU- and private sector-procured doses, the statement said. – jlo
