MANILA — The Philippines is the 50th country in the world with the highest number of COVID-19 shots administered, an official leading the vaccination strategy said on Tuesday.

Worldwide, 673 million shots have been administered, said vaccine "czar" Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr, citing a Bloomberg tracker.

The Philippines has administered out 854,063 doses as of April 5, the 50th highest among 155 countries, Galvez said.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines has the fourth highest vaccination figures, next to Indonesia, Singapore, and Myanmar, he added.

The Philippines aims to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year. The 854,063 people inoculated so far represents about 1.22 of the target.

Those vaccinated in the Philippines include 789,415 health workers, about 11,000 elderly, and some 7,100 people with comorbidities, said Galvez, who is also chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19.

The US, with about 167 million doses administered, tops the global vaccination tracker. It is followed by China, the European Union, India and the United Kingdom.

The Philippines has so far received 2 million COVID-19 shots from Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech, and 525,600 vaccine doses of Britain's AstraZeneca vaccine through global sharing platform COVAX Facility.

Government expects to receive this month 1.5 million more Sinovac shots and around 500,000 doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine that Russia developed, said Galvez.

Galvez earlier said the Philippines would receive 979,200 AstraZeneca shots in late March or early April.

However, he said the expected delivery could see a "reduction" due to "the global constriction on AstraZeneca." Last week, Galvez said the supply could be delayed due to export restrictions by manufacturer India.

A recent surge in infections have forced government to place Metro Manila and surrounding Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces under the toughest of 4 lockdown levels until April 11.

Video courtesy of PTV