Vaccine supply no longer a problem —Galvez

Finding supplies of vaccines against the coronavirus disease is no longer a problem for the Philippines, which has yet to achieve its target of herd immunity, said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday.

This after the country received the biggest supply delivery from Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines as well as Sputnik and donations from the COVAX facility.

In the taped Talk to the People, Galvez also said more than 20 million doses were already delivered in October, which he dubbed as the biggest number of vaccine supply that arrived in the country.

"Right now supply is not anymore an issue. We have more than 38 million doses in our warehouses," Galvez reported to President Rodrigo Duterte.

Despite what Galvez called good news on the vaccine supply, he also mentioned that they are facing logistics issues in distributing the jabs to the vaccine centers.

"So ngayon ang problema natin yung throughput. Ang ating sinasabi ko nga po nakikita na marami tayong nakastockpile na more or less 39 million na vaccine," he said.

He further pointed out that some vaccines would be delivered at vaccine sites from seven to nine days.

"Napapansin namin yung deployment bago dumating sa vaccination site, umaabot ng 7 to 9 days. So ito po ang tinututukan namin ni Sec Vince (Dizon), Sec (Francisco) Duque, at Sec (Eduardo) Año kung paano mapapabilis ang deployment from warehouse down to administration site," he said.

31.76% Filipinos fully vaccinated versus COVID-19

Galvez also revealed that 24,298,753 Filipinos have received full doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which is 31.76% of the country's eligible population.

Philippines had also administered 52.78 million doses of various vaccines versus COVID-19, including 28 million Filipinos who received the first dose of vaccines, Galvez  said.

Metro Manila remained the top region with the highest percentage of vaccinated individuals, with 80% of its population already fully inoculated against COVID-19.

Further, Galvez said the government is seeking to raise its vaccination target to 1.5 million a day to achieve a "happy Christmas."

He also said the government is targeting to vaccinate 70% of population before the start of the 2022 election period. 

"So meaning before February," Galvez said. —LDF, GMA News