A health worker in Ilocos Norte gets vaccinated against COVID-19. (Photo courtesy of Ilocos Norte provincial government)
MANILA, Philippines — Over 5.5 million individuals have already been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the Philippines, the National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) said Saturday.
In a statement, the NTF said 10,866,238 have received their first doses, while 5,560,029 have been fully vaccinated.
“We are now past the crawl and walk stages, as we gradually run towards our goal of inoculating half a million Filipinos per day this quarter. This is a preview of better things to come in the remaining six months of 2021,” NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said.
“Despite the inclement weather, our implementing units have remained resilient and are committed to inoculating more Filipinos. We are grateful to all frontliners in the government and the private sector who continue to serve the public despite the many challenges we continue to face,” he added.
The country administered a record-high 472,356 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on July 22, the Department of Health said.
NTF deputy chief implementer and testing czar Vince Dizon said the government aims to administer 750,000 doses daily “in the next quarter.”
“The upward trajectory of our daily vaccination output in all priority sectors says so many things in the ongoing program — our vaccine supply inventory is expanding and the vaccine confidence of the Filipino people is increasing. We want to keep this trend as we aim for 750,000 daily jabs in the next quarter,” Dizon said.
At least 30.9 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have so far been delivered to the Philippines.
The Philippine government secured a total of 164 million vaccine doses from different vaccine manufacturers for this year, which includes government-procured shots and donations coming from the COVAX facility and donor countries.