Over 44,000 inoculated vs COVID-19 in PH

More than 44,000 individuals in the Philippines have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of March 8, since the country's inoculation program began on March 1.

Vaccines czar Secretary Carlito Galvez stated that 44,000 people have been vaccinated, citing an uptick in demand after Metro Manila doctors were seen getting inoculated.

The government has distributed 383,980 doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines to healthcare facilities nationwide.

The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization to vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac, all of which require two doses.

The Philippines currently possesses 1,125,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, comprising 600,000 Sinovac doses donated by China and 525,600 AstraZeneca doses from the COVAX facility.

Additional vaccine doses from various suppliers are anticipated to arrive in the country in the upcoming months.

The Philippine government has set a target to vaccinate up to 70 million Filipinos within the year, aiming for herd immunity, which would require a daily vaccination rate of 300,000 to 500,000 people, contingent on a steady supply.