A resident in Olongapo City gets inoculated against COVID-19 during a recent mass vaccination at the SMX Convention Center of SM Olongapo Central on July 22. (Photo courtesy of Olongapo City Information Center)
MANILA, Philippines — The country administered record-high 472,356 doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday as the government braces for the possible community spread of the Delta variant, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
“We have administered the highest daily jabs on July 22. We have administered 472,356 doses of COVID-19 vaccine,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told an online media briefing on Friday.
“With the threat of the Delta variant, we have to increase our vaccination rate, especially among our senior citizens and persons with comorbidity who are at most risk for severe COVID-19,” she added.
Based on a Malacañang report, the country has already administered 15.6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of July 20 since the government kicked off its inoculation campaign.
Five million individuals have so far been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of the same date.
Vergeire reiterated that the pacing of vaccination depends on the supply of anti-coronavirus shots.
“We also recognize that our speed in vaccination is greatly dependent on the availability of vaccine supply to the country. Our vaccine cluster is working hard to secure more vaccine doses given the shortage in global supply. When more vaccines arrive, we can exponentially increase the pace of our vaccination,” she said.
The government aims to vaccinate around 70 million Filipinos or 70 percent of its over 100 million total population in order to reach herd immunity.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said that the country may attain the first dose vaccination of 70 million people against COVID-19 by November.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, meanwhile, said the country’s target of reaching herd immunity against COVID-19 may extend to January 2022 “at the most.”