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| Despite an increase in COVID-19 cases, the Philippines has reached another milestone in its national vaccination program, with over 54 million Filipinos now fully vaccinated. |
TACLOBAN CITY – Amid an increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, the Philippines has reached another milestone in its national vaccination program, with over 54 million Filipinos, or more than 70% of the target population, being fully vaccinated.
According to data from the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC), 117,383,756 vaccine doses were provided nationwide as of January 13.
Of this total, 54,457,863 people have been fully vaccinated, accounting for 70.60 percent of the nation's target population.
Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar, stated that this development demonstrates the national government's commitment to continue expanding vaccine rollout across all sectors of society despite challenges caused by the surge in cases and the onslaught of tropical cyclone Odette in December.
Despite logistical challenges and a continued rise of illnesses caused by the Omicron strain, the country's average daily vaccination rate has remained stable at 1.04 million over the last three days.
The national government intends to fully vaccinate at least 77 million Filipinos in the first quarter of this year, and 90 million by the end of the second quarter.
As of January 13, six regions in the country had already achieved the 70% level for completely immunized people.
Metro Manila (109.07 percent), Cordillera Administrative Region (78.43 percent), Ilocos Region (78.17 percent), Cagayan Valley (74.93 percent), Central Luzon (75.74 percent), and CALABARZON (75.74 percent) are among them (71.92 percent ).
Meanwhile, Galvez urged all local government units to continue boosting their vaccination plans in order to vaccinate as many Filipinos as possible as quickly as possible, given the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases.
As of January 14, a total of 4,415,333 people had gotten booster or extra doses.
The vaccine czar previously stated that the three million unvaccinated senior persons should be prioritized in the immunization program since they are more likely to be hospitalized and die.
Galvez also highlighted that the vaccine effort should not be slowed, especially since the country is experiencing its greatest rise yet.
Various producers have already delivered 213,655,520 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines. Over 96 million doses are already stockpiled in warehouses, ready to be distributed to local governments across the country. (Source: National Task Force Against COVID-19)