Over 200,000 healthcare workers across the Philippines have already received the first dose of anti-COVID vaccines following the government’s rollout of the national vaccine program on March 1, 2021.

“Napakaganda po ng development, kasi bumibilis na ang ating vaccination. As of 11 AM today, mayroon na po tayong 216,794 medical frontliners na nagkaroon na po ng vaccination,” Vaccine Czar and National Task Force against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. said during a virtual presser on Tuesday, March 16.

“Mayroon po tayong schedule at sistemang sinusunod sa pagbabakuna sa ating healthcare workers. Kaya kailangang well-calibrated po, by batches, at deliberate sa pagbabakuna para ‘yung manning sa hospitals ay hindi po madisrupt,” he added.

Of the 1,125,600 vaccine doses the country has received, 96 percent have already been deployed across the country.

Top five regions with the most number of administered first doses (by percentage):

• Region 10 – 90.25%
• NCR – 68.77%
• Region 2 – 61.39%
• Region 9 – 56.53%
• Region 6 – 55.80%

Galvez, who traveled to India last week, reported that the country will get 30 million doses of the Novavax anti-COVID vaccines, after the Philippine government signed a supply agreement with the Serum Institute of India (SII). (READ: PH secures 30M doses of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine)

Likewise, he said the second tranche of AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX facility, which is about 900,000 doses, is anticipated to arrive by late March or early April.

(Source: National Task Force)