The Department of Health (DOH) said more than five million Filipinos have been vaccinated during the first two days of the national vaccination drive.
"Our running total is 5,000,353," said DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje on Wednesday, Dec. 1.
Cabotaje said that 2,708,018 individuals were vaccinated on Nov. 29 while 2,292,335 people were inoculated on Nov. 30.
The Health official said that they are still hopeful that they would be able to reach their target of nine million vaccinees. The national vaccination drive is set to end today, Dec. 1.
"We are still hopeful that we will be able to meet the nine million target. But just in case we will be unable to reach it, this is a record high already of our accomplishments," said Cabotaje.
"Before, we were at one million a day. Now, we reached over two million," she added.
Second round
As the government is eyeing to have another round of national vaccination days this month, Cabotaje said that they are looking at improving the processes of the vaccination to accommodate more people.
Cabotaje said they are eyeing to set up more registration areas in vaccination sites.
"I-increase natin iyong registration area kasi iyon ang kanilang mga complaint na hindi na-accommodate, may mga long queues (We will increase the number of registration areas because those are some of the complaints--- that have not been accommodated, there are long queues)," she said.
The Health official also said they are looking at extending the vaccination hours.
"If we can accommodate more walk-ins, we can extend our hours in vaccination," said Cabotaje.
"Tapos iyong utos po ni Presidente na sana po ay huwag magpauwi ng nakalinya na sa bakunahan. So, no walk-in should be sent home without being vaccinated," she added.
For the planned second nationwide vaccination drive, Cabotaje said they are also targeting to vaccinate nine million Filipinos.
"Our initial consideration is the same target of nine million but we will have to consult with our local chief executives on what their respective targets are," she said.