Some 3.5 million vaccine doses have arrived in the country in the past few days, plus another vaccine delivery is expected today, said Presidential Spokesperson Secretary Harry Roque Jr in his press briefing today, May 10, 2021, held in Davao.
The Palace official mentioned the arrival of 1.5 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China last Friday, May 7, 2021, and the arrival of more than two million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX Facility on May 8, 2021.
“Inaasahan din natin na darating naman ngayon araw, May 10, ang nasa 193,000 doses ng unang batch ng bakuna mula po sa Pfizer,” said Secretary Roque.
The Palace spokesperson added that because the Pfizer vaccine requires negative 20 degrees temperature, the initial vaccine doses will be distributed to areas with the capability to handle the said temperature requirement, like in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao.
“Pero gaya ng sinabi ko kanina, napakadami na po nating iba pang mga bakuna, so wag po kayong mag-alala magkakaroon po tayo ng bakuna para sa lahat,” assured Sec. Roque.
Roque also cited Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr, in a previous guesting in the press briefing, who said that with regard to the vaccine rollout, there has been an agreement already that those areas with high incidence of COVID-19 will be prioritized for the vaccination program, which include the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus areas and neighboring provinces, including Cebu and Davao.
With the successive arrival of COVID vaccines, the Palace spokesperson expressed confidence that more people will be inoculated. As of May 8, 2021 data from the Department of Health, there are now 2,395,494 COVID vaccine doses that have been administered, of which 1,508,146 were medical frontliners or those from the A1 Priority Group.
Meanwhile, in terms of COVID-19 recovery rate, the Philippines currently ranks third among ASEAN nations with a recovery rate of 92.76 percent, following Singapore and Brunei, said Sec. Roque, citing data from the Global COVID-19 Statistics of Worldometer.
“Nagpapasalamat tayo sa ating mga medical frontliners at syempre nagpapasalamat tayo sa kooperasyon ng lahat sa pagma-mask, hugas, at iwas,” Roque remarked.
The Cabinet official who also sits as Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) spokesperson, also reminded Filipinos to follow prescribed guidelines with regard to mass gatherings in view of the reported incident in Caloocan where many people were seen gathered in a swimming pool.
“Bawal pa po ang mass gathering sa NCR, plus nasa ilalim pa po kase tayo ng MECQ,” reminded Roque. He added: “Naintindihan po natin natin na mainit ang panahon, at marami ang sabik maligo, lumangoy, at magpalamig. Ngunit hindi naman dapat itong maging dahilan para hindi natin sundin ang guideline,” said Roque.
Secretary Roque said that the local government unit (LGU) will be investigating the matter and commended the LGU of Caloocan for its swift action on the issue. “Siyempre po MECQ, bawal po turismo, at bawal yung pagtitipon-tipon. Iwan na lang po natin doon dahil talaga naman ang pagpapataw ng parusa ay nasa kamay naman po yan ng lokal na pamahalaan,” sad Roque. ### OPS-PCOO
