The government expects the pace for the administration of Covid-19 vaccines to pick up as the number of active virus cases decrease, as more health workers will be available to administer jabs.

This, as the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 noted decrease by as much as 12,000 in the average daily vaccination rate last month due to a surge in cases.

During the last seven days, 347,952 doses were administered as against 359,982 on September 26.

In previous weeks, NTF chief Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said some vaccinators had to be moved to medical facilities to attend to positive cases.

“When the cases are going down, the LGUs (local government units) can concentrate now on vaccinating more people,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

On September 27, the Department of Health reported an average of 4,347 new infections the previous week, down from about 5,145 during the earlier periods.

As of Sunday, the Philippines has already received 77.412 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, with 46.251 million doses administered nationwide.

A total of 21.738 million Filipinos are already fully protected while 24.513 million are waiting for the second dose.

“With the over 77 million vaccine doses we have received since February, we are moving closer to vaccinating half of our eligible population,” Galvez said, referring to the country’s target of 77.1 million or 70 percent of the total population of 110 million.

The number does not include the 12 to 17 age group, which will be included in the two-week test vaccination starting October 15.

The government expects to hit the 100-million mark of vaccine doses received by the end of October.

“This brings us closer to our goal of achieving herd immunity or population protection for us to safely exit from this pandemic as soon as possible,” Galvez added.