The country reached another milestone in its fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) with more than 10 million Filipinos now fully vaccinated.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. confirmed the achievement – 10,282,152 to be exact – during a media briefing with the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City on Thursday.
“If before we did not know where to get the vaccine, now we already have 10 million Filipinos who have full protection against Covid-19,” Roque said in Filipino.
Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that in the National Capital Region (NCR), 38 percent of the population have completed two doses while 50 percent have the first shot.
“The difference is 12 percent or 1.2 million doses. That is 600,000 remaining that we need to work on to achieve the 50 percent coverage. The problem is the dosing interval like for AstraZeneca which is 12 weeks so we need to wait,” Duque explained in Filipino.
Roque said the national government is expecting that 50 percent will be fully vaccinated in Metro Manila by the end of August, especially with the NTF commitment to deliver 4 million additional jabs during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on Aug. 6 to 20.
NTF deputy chief implementer Secretary Vivencio Dizon also announced another record in daily doses administered.
“Last Tuesday, we have achieved the highest number of vaccine doses since the start of the vaccination rollout on March 1. We have reached over 700,000 jabs in one day,” Dizon said in Filipino.
Still, more has to be done to accelerate and expand the country’s vaccination program, Dizon said.
“We are not yet happy with that. We will not stop until we have vaccinated each of our countrymen so we can finally end this Covid-19 nightmare,” he added in Filipino.
He also thanked anew local government units (LGUs) as well as the private sector for the successful vaccination program.
Mandaluyong elderly all vaccinated
In the same event, Mandaluyong Mayor Menchie Abalos announced that the city has vaccinated all its senior citizens.
Of the city’s total population of 464,467, there are 29,749 registered senior citizens.
“We vaccinated a total of 30,508 senior citizens equivalent to 102.55 percent,” she said in Filipino.
Eighty-three percent (25,395) are fully vaccinated while 17 percent (5,113) are waiting for their second dose.
