1.79 million jabbed so far in 2nd COVID-19 vaccination push
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has so far administered more than 1.79 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for the second phase of the government’s massive vaccination push, the Department of Health said Friday.
According to Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, a total of 1,794,433 have been inoculated in the second run of the immunization drive.
Broken down, 1,060,196 jabs were given on December 15 and 734,337 shots were administered on December 16.
Cabotaje said the top performing regions were Calabarzon, Central Luzon and Ilocos.
The government moved the second phase of the vaccination campaign in 11 regions to next week due to Typhoon Odette (international name: Rai)—the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in the country this year.
Around 100 million jabs have been administered since the government began COVID-19 vaccinations in March, with over 43 million Filipinos completing the recommended doses.
Authorities are targeting to fully vaccinate 54 million Filipinos by the end of 2021.
“We will push another 11 million until the end of this year,” Cabotaje said.
Solidarity trial
Officials announced Friday the launch of the World Health Organization’s solidarity trial on vaccines in the country.
The solidarity trial is an “international, randomized clinical trial platform designed to rapidly evaluate the efficacy and safety of promising new candidate vaccines,” the WHO said.
“The Philippines’ commitment to participate in the solidarity trial of vaccines is a major milestone in our effort to facilitate vaccine development,” said Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO representative to the Philippines.
- Latest
- Trending
