People flock to Marikina Sports Complex in Marikina City on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, to receive anti-covid vaccine, as the local government aims to inoculate 13,000 people on a single day.-INQUIRER/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — The national government is targeting to have seven million Filipinos fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of July, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the national vaccine manager, said on Monday during the taped weekly briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country.
As of July 11, over 3.5 million Filipinos have already completed their COVID-19 shots, according to Galvez.
This means that the government is halfway to achieving its target.
“Our fourth [target] is to give seven million people their second dose. That’s what [Health Secretary Francisco] Duque and our experts have been saying — that it’s important to get the second dose against the variant,” Galvez said, speaking partly in Filipino.
“We can see that we can really manage to give seven million to eight million their second dose,” he added.
The government is also eyeing to vaccinate at least 90 percent of all healthcare workers, administer 10 million vaccine doses by the end of the month, and breach the weekly average of 300,000 to 400,000 jabs per day.
The Philippines has so far received more than 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The most recent arrival was 132,300 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V. Also delivered last week were more than 2 million doses of AstraZeneca.