MANILA -- The pilot implementation of the Resbakuna sa Botika drive, which tapped pharmacies and private clinics to administer COVID-19 vaccines, will have five pharmacies and two private clinics participating in its first week of implementation, said Acting Presidential Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles.
“Malugod kong binabalita na papaigtingin pa natin ang pagbabakuna at lalo nating ilalapit ang vaccination sites sa ating mga kababayan. Magkakaroon tayo sa Huwebes, January 20, ng Resbakuna sa Botika Drive, na mahalagang bahagi ng ating Bayanihan Bakunahan,” said Secretary Nograles in a press briefing on January 18, 2022.
The pilot implementation will be the first phase of the Resbakuna sa Botika drive, which will administer booster shots to those who have completed their primary series or two doses of vaccines or the single dose Janssen vaccine, said Sec. Nograles.
“Nasa ilalim pa rin ng pangangasiwa ng lokal na pamahalaan or mga LGUs ang registration ng mga magpapa-booster, ang documentation ng mga bakuna, ang pag-administer ng mga ito, at ang ancillary services, habang ang mga botika ang mag-o-oversee ng vaccine administration or pangangasiwa sa aktwal na pagtuturok,” said Nograles.
The Palace official and concurrent spokesperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) said those who want to have their boosters may choose from the following participating pharmacies and private clinics: Healthway Manila Clinic, Mercury Drug Manila Malate President Quirino Branch, Southstar SSD Marikina Branch, Watsons SM Supercenter Pasig, Generika Signal 1 Branch in Taguig, TGP Paranaque Branch, and QualiMed McKinley.
“Libre po ito, kabahagi po ito ng ating implementation ng mga booster shots,” said Nograles, emphasizing that the pilot implementaton is for booster shots only.
Added Nograles, each pharmacy or clinic will be allocated some 500 doses per week, good for 50 to 100 doses per day. “Again, that’s just for initial. So yung pilot para lang makita natin ang flow, para makita natin yung uptake, makita natin yung demand, and then of course para meron po tayong basis for the expansion,” Nograles explained.
Moreover, Nograles said the government eventually plans to expand the said vaccination drive in pharmacies and clinics nationwide. “Again, it is only a pilot for one week muna but obviously kung successful yan, if going on and on, increasing the pilot sites and then increasing the doses allocated kung needed, and then hopefully with the success of the pilot implementation we can expand it also to outside NCR,” said Nograles.
With the current pace of the government’s vaccination efforts, it is estimated that the Philippines will be able to fully vaccinate 70 percent of its whole population in 53 days, Nograles said.
As of January 16, 2022, a total of 118,944,889 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, which puts the Philippines in 18th rank globally among 205 countries in terms of total doses administered, 11th in Asia out of 47 countries, and third in the ASEAN.
Of the total number of people who have been vaccinated, 63.8 million individuals have received a first dose, while more than 55.1 million are fully vaccinated.
Currently, the country’s seven-day average vaccination rate is at 797,265 doses, or 5,580,858 doses administered last week from January 10 to January 16, 2022.
The Philippines has received a total of 213,682,620 COVID-19 vaccine doses since March 2021 until January 13, 2022. Of the said number of doses received, more than 114 million were purchased by the national government, while more than 76.8 million doses were donated, and more than 22.5 million were bought by local government units and the private sector. (OPS)
