The Philippine government is hoping to fully inoculate 50 million people against COVID-19 by the end of the year to raise the number of those vaccinated in the country to 50 percent.
The National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 adviser, Dr Ted Herbosa, said in a public briefing that the country’s vaccination rate continues to increase and over 700,000 shots were administered on Friday.
This week, the Philippines has so far received over 100 million total virus shots and the country also received 1 million more vaccine doses earlier in the day.
Herbosa said, “ Yes definitely, as of now, we have [administered] 58 million doses na sa ating mga kababayan, I think kalahati noon, more than half of that is ‘yung fully vaccinated,.”
“Pataas nang pataas ang rate natin, nasa 32 percent na tayo, so hopefully makukuha natin ‘yung 50 percent fully vaccinated by the end of December,” he added.
The National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 earlier this week said that 50 percent target represents the “low” threshold, but the “high target” remains at 70 percent.
Myrna Cabotaje, Health Undersecretary, said that the high target covering some 77.1 million people may only be reached in the first quarter of 2022.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr on Monday night also told President Rodrigo Duterte in a meeting that “more or less 50 percent” of the population may be vaccinated by the end of December.
Galvez said they aim to administer 1.5 million COVID-19 shots daily to have a “safe” Christmas. The country has so far fully vaccinated at least 26.8 million individuals and 31.4 million are partially vaccinated against COVID-19.
Fully immunized individuals in the country represent 34.75 percent of the 70 percent target.
