At least 85 percent of the eligible population in the National Capital Region (NCR) will be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by October, according to National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.

Also, the national inoculation program also by October will cover up to 50 percent in the Plus 8 areas of Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.

As of early September, about 52.3 percent or five million NCR residents have completed their vaccine doses while 81.72 percent or about eight million have the first dose.

“Our target by the end of the month is to fully vaccinate 80 percent in NCR since they are now having second doses. They can do it. Other key cities can raise the vaccination to 50 percent,” Galvez said partly in Filipino during President Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk to the People aired Tuesday morning.

Galvez, also the vaccine czar, said about 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses will be delivered until October, allowing the government to expand the vaccination to other sectors.

“We will ramp up our deliveries so at least we could reach 100 million by the end of the month so that we can open up more vaccination for other sectors like the children and the adolescent,” he said.

The government also plans to increase the daily average vaccination rate between 500,000 and 800,000 doses.

The average daily jabs administered in the last seven days stood at 366,765 doses.

So far, the Philippines has already received 66.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

“For the month of September, our throughput was reduced to 10 million due to vaccine challenges. Deliveries started during the middle of the month and the surge of cases diverted the attention of LGUs,” Galvez said. CURRENTPH NEWS SERVICE