The Duterte administration’s chief economic manager expects at least half of the country’s population will get inoculation against coronavirus by the end of this year.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the national government does not need to set aside funds to vaccinate all the estimated 110 million Filipinos, noting that there are other factors that need to be considered.

For one, Dominguez explained that the Philippines has a large population of people who are aged 18 and below, which medical authorities do not recommend for vaccination.

“That leaves us with 70 million Filipinos to be vaccinated,” Dominguez said in an interview with international business news channel CNBC.

Of that 70 million, Dominguez estimated that about 10 million to 13 million will be vaccinated by the private sector and the local government units.

He also noted that there are people who do not wish to be vaccinated.

In the end, Dominguez expects that between 57 million and 60 million individuals will secure the vaccines that were funded by the national government.

“We have certainly enough funds to vaccinate the 57 to 60 million people,” Dominguez assured.

Asked about when he expects the Philippines could achieve roughly herd immunity for COVID-19, Dominguez said probably by the end of this year we should have vaccinated the majority of the people.

According to Dominguez, the government expects drugmakers will deliver initial doses of COVID-19 vaccines next month.

Earlier, Dominguez said they are now working to borrow $1.46 billion, or roughly P70 billion, from foreign or local sources to fund the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines that can inoculate at least 50 million Filipinos.

The P70 billion forms part of the P82.5 billion budget required by the government to provide COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate adult Filipinos.

To date, the government already identified P12.5 billion, of which, P10 billion will come from the funds allocated for the COVID-19 vaccination program under the Bayanihan To Recover As One Act and P2.5 billion from the Department of Health 2021 budget.

The Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are among the sources of funding for the vaccine fund, Dominguez said.

“We will fully recover from this crisis once a safe and effective vaccine becomes available to us, on the strength of our enduring macroeconomic fundamentals,” Dominguez said.