Over 62M Filipinos fully vaccinated vs COVID-19—DOH
The total number of fully vaccinated people against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Philippines has already reached 62 million, the Department of Health (DOH) said.
“So, sa ngayon mula po noong nag-umpisa tayo (Ever since we started) we have a total of 62.3 million individuals fully vaccinated already in the country,” said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Saturday, Feb. 19.
“That translates to about 69.8 percent coverage if we talk about the target of 77 million,” she added.
The Philippine government started its COVID-19 vaccination program last March 2021.
Meanwhile, about 9.6 million booster doses were already administered so far, said Vergeire.
“Ito po ay medyo mababa po kaya hinihikayat nga natin ang ating mga kababayan na mag-receive na sila ng booster dahil kailangan po natin ito para mas tumaas ang antas ng protection natin sa ating katawan (It is still quite low so we encourage our citizens to receive a booster shot because we need it to increase the level of protection in our body),” she said.
National vaccination drive 3
In a related development, the government failed to meet its target of administering five million vaccine doses during the third leg of the national vaccination drive that ended last Friday, Feb. 18.
“Bagama’t hindi po natin na-achieve iyong five million na ating target, atin pong ikinagagalak pa rin na mayroon po tayong achievement na at least 3.5 million nakadagdag po ito sa pagtaas ng antas ng pagbabakuna sa ating bansa (Although we did not achieve our target of five million, we are still glad that we have an achievement of at least 3.5 million–which were added to the increase in the level of vaccination in our country),” she said.
Vergeire said that the government intends to further ramp up its vaccination campaign against COVID-19.
“Maybe later on ‘pag ginawa natin uli magkakaroon na tayo ng mga (when we do it again we will have) mixed strategies— where we are also going to do house-to-house and then we also go to those far-flung areas para po mas marami tayong ma-cover na mga kababayan natin (in order to cover more people),” she said.