The Department of Health said of the more than 1 million Filipinos that have been vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), 162,065 have received their second doses already.
"From the distributed doses, over 1 million (1,093,651) Filipinos: healthcare workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities have been afforded partial protection through administration of the first dose," the DOH said.
"Meanwhile, of the total Filipinos who received their first doses, 162,065 Filipinos have been given their second doses of the vaccine, thereby affording them the full protection and benefits that vaccines provide," added the department.
Based on the April 14 vaccine rollout update of the DOH, the areas having the highest number of doses received were the National Capital Region with 1,158,470; followed by Calabarzon with 268,160; Central Luzon with 190,700; and Central Visayas with 176,760.
While the areas with the highest number of vaccines administered were the NCR with 423,688; followed by Central Luzon with 101,605; Calabarzon with 100,627; and Central Visayas with 75,169.
The DOH said the total available doses in the country are now over 3 million doses, of which 93 percent doses have been distributed to different regions.
"This equates to a total of 2,801,020 doses distributed throughout the country," the Health department said.
"In one week, we were able to successfully distribute almost 900,000 doses to all our regions—this is a testament to our logistics handling and cold chain capabilities and shows that we are ready to distribute vaccines quickly once the bulk of the vaccine doses from our negotiations and COVAX arrive," added DOH.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) said Filipinos are slowly regaining confidence in getting vaccinated due to the examples shown by healthcare workers.
"Having doctors and other medical frontliners in the vaccination lines encourages people to get vaccinated too. As we can see, we believe vaccine hesitancy has been greatly reduced," PMA President Dr. Benito Atienza said in a virtual press briefing.
"We are already seeing lower vaccine hesitancy, especially when you have public personalities and community leaders getting the vaccine. That inspires confidence," said PHAP Executive Director Teodoro Padilla.
As of April 13, the DOH said, 2,988 vaccination sites were conducting COVID-19 vaccination in various sites across all regions.