Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez says the goal of being able to vaccinate 70% of the country’s population by end of 2021 is possible; however, economy can already re-open with at least 50% of the Filipinos already inoculated.
Citing examples, Galvez said that countries like the US, UK and Israel have all shown a decrease of hospitalization and deaths once 30% of their populations have already been vaccinated and continued to decline upon reaching 50%.
Under the Philippine setting, he said restrictions can be loosened at the 30% threshold and later on, re-open the economy upon reaching 50%. However, he clarified that their target is actually to be able to complete inoculation for 70% of the population by the end of 2021.
In Metro Manila, the 70% target can be achieved with 120,000 jabs done daily, which basically means 1,200 vaccination sites must be able inject a minimum of 100 individuals each day. At present, the national capital region is able to perform up to 500 injections; thereby making this target highly achievable.
Galvez further stated that with the Philippines set to receive 9.95 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from different manufacturers within this month, there will be a “symbolic rollout” to the A4 category (economic frontliners) this coming June 07.
Moreover, a vaccination site capable of inoculating 6,000 individuals is set to open this June 04. ABS-CBN’s Investigative and Research Group reported that 5.18 million doses have already been administered as of May 30. From this quantity, 1,206,371 were employed for the second dose thus completing full protection from the virus.
