MANILA - The Philippine government is expecting to breach the 6-million mark in its COVID-19 vaccination program this week.
In a statement, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Philippines is expecting over 10 million COVID-19 vaccines this month.
With the increased stock, Galvez said the government eyes inoculating between 4 million to 5 million more people, with the total vaccination to reach 6 million by this week.
"Ang target natin ngayong month, magkaroon tayo ng four to five million na vaccinations, so itong linggo na ito, ang target natin, maka six million (jabs) na tayo," he said.
(Our target for this month is to have four to five million vaccinations, and this week, we are targeting to finish 6 million jabs.)
The government will start the vaccination of its fourth priority group (A4), the working population, or economic frontliners on June 7.
Galvez earlier said the government is planning on administering 500,000 jabs daily by the third quarter of the year, and increasing it to 740,000 shots a day.
Galvez also expressed confidence that the government will reach its target, with the bulk of its vaccine supply arriving by July.
Another batch of 1 million Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived in Manila on Sunday morning.
Around 100,000 Sputnik V jabs are set to arrive on June 8, while another 1 million Sinovac jabs and 2.2 million doses of Pfizer will also arrive from global alliance COVAX Facility on June 10.
Some 2 million AstraZeneca jabs from COVAX are also expected within the month.
As of June 2, the Philippines has administered over 5.38 million vaccine shots against COVID-19, including 4,088,422 first doses. A total of 1,293,750 people have meanwhile completed the two-dose regimen.
The Philippines' total COVID-19 cases climbed to more than 1.26 million on Saturday, with 6,955 newly reported infections.
Of the country's cumulative total of 1,269,478, the Department of Health said 59,337 are active cases while 21,898 are deaths.
Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar Galvez, COVID-19, coronavirus, COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Sinovac, Sputnik V, Pfizer, AstraZeneca