11% of Filipinos fully vaccinated against COVID-19
MANILA, Philippines — Around 12 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 since the government launched its inoculation campaign in March, Malacañang said Thursday.
This figure represents just 11% of the Philippines' total 109 million population. Another 14.1 million Filipinos or 12.9% of the population have received a first dose of the vaccine, according to figures presented by presidential spokesman Harry Roque at his regular briefing.
To meet its already-adjusted goal of vaccinating 50 to 60 million of the population by yearend, the government would have to fully vaccinate at least 38 million more people in less than five months. Its original goal was to vaccinate 70 million people to achieve herd immunity in the country.
Over 800K Pfizer vaccines arrive in the Philippines
Last night, another 813,150 coronavirus shots developed by Pfizer and BioNTech arrived in the Philippines.
The National Task Force Against COVID-19 said the shots delivered through DHL flight LD457 would be allocated to three metropolitan areas, with the capital region and other areas with high case counts receiving the lion's share of 607,770 jabs.
Officials previously said that they were looking to ramp up vaccination in Metro Manila which is under the most stringent form of quarantine until August 20 in a bid to prevent a surge driven by the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19.
Shares of 102,960 Pfizer shots each were allocated to Cebu City and Davao City.
"Today’s shipment of Pfizer vaccines is part of the 40 million doses the country has secured from the American pharmaceutical firm after signing a supply agreement last June 20," NTF said Wednesday night, noting that a total of 1.75 million of these jabs have been delivered so far.
It added that, aside from the shots procured by the government, the Philippines has also received 2.47 million Pfizer vaccines through the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility.
A total of 39.52 million COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in the country, 23.13 million of which have already been administered, according to government figures as of Aug. 11, 2021.
— Bella Perez-Rubio
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