The national government has achieved its goal of administering at least one million doses of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines in a single day, an official of the pandemic task force revealed Friday night, Nov. 5.
Assistant Sec. Wilben Mayor, head of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19’s sub-task group on current operations, said 1,119,389 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were given nationwide on Nov. 4 – a new record-high in the country’s national vaccination program.
“So from 700,000 to one million up to 1.5 million, same projection everyday with the help of the private sector, local government units, as well as other private entities. Iyon ang focus natin (This is our focus),” Mayor said during the arrival of 866,970 doses of government-procured Pfizer vaccines at NAIA Terminal 3.
He said the government will strive hard to further achieve its target of administering 1.5 million doses in a single day within this month.
This, he noted, will help realize the national goal of vaccinating around 50 to 80 percent of the target population of 77 million Filipinos by the end of 2021.
“Iyon naman talaga ang aim ng vaccination natin (That’s really the aim of our vaccination ). As much as possible, we have to ramp it up from one million to 1.5 million per day so that by December at least 50 to 80 percent of the target population will be vaccinated,” he said.
Meanwhile, the newly delivered Pfizer vaccines will be distributed to all regions for the inoculation of minors aged 12 to 17. Around 58,000 children and adolescents within this age bracket have already been vaccinated, according to Mayor.
“We’re very proud to support the Philippines in its quest to conquer this disease. We’ve been a partner of the Philippines in this fight against the COVID-19 from the start and we’ll be here until we succeed in our goal to end COVID-19,” said Saptarshi Basu, economic officer at United States Embassy.
The delivery brought the national vaccine supply to 109,779,530 doses.
According to the National Vaccination Operations Center, a total of 33,755,478 individuals have received their first dose while 28,718,856 others have been fully vaccinated as of Nov. 4.
The fully vaccinated population represents 37.23 percent of the 77 million target eligible population that the government needs to inoculate to achieve herd immunity.