(FILE) Photo shows a senior citizen receiving her second booster jab in San Juan City in May 2022. (File photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The government has achieved its target of fully vaccinating 70 million Filipinos against COVID-19, the National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) announced Saturday.
The NTF, citing reports from the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC), said the government was able to fully vaccinate 70,005,247 individuals or 77.78 percent of the target population as of June 17, Friday.
As of June 17, the country has administered a total of 153,013,072 COVID-19 vaccine doses, with 74,813,407 individuals receiving at least one dose, according to the NVOC.
The government originally aimed to vaccinate 90 million Filipinos before President Rodrigo Duterte ends his term.
However, Carlito Galvez, head of the country’s vaccination program, admitted that the target is hard to hit due to vaccine uptake drop in the previous months, prompting the government to return to its original target of 70 million vaccinees.
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Galvez expressed confidence that the high vaccination rate can prevent another surge in new COVID-19 infections.
“We have had many superspreader events in the past months, including the national elections, but we still managed to keep our new COVID-19 cases low because of our high vaccination rate,” Galvez said in a statement.
Galvez also called on the next administration to put priority on the COVID-19 vaccination program “to build an immunity wall among our people.”
“This is our parting gift to the next administration,” Galvez said.