The three-day national vaccination drive is still ongoing, but Philippine authorities are already planning a follow-up next month just before Christmas.

Cabinet Secretary and Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles said in an interview over ANC Headstart Wednesday, Dec. 1 that the dates Dec. 15, 16, and 17 are tentatively being eyed as the next national vaccination days.

"We're also considering another round of vaccination days...although we're still finalizing that," said Nograles, who also serves as Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Spokesperson.

"The reason for all of this is again, to add the defense against Omicron and whatever variants there are," he said, referring to the mysterious new variant of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Wednesday was the final day of the mass inoculation campaign dubbed "Bayanihan, Bakunahan". The national government's target was to give COVID-19 shots to nine million Filipinos during three-day run of the event, which began on Nov. 29.

Nograles acknowledged that only 2.55 million Filipinos were vaccinated on the first day, or lower than the three million daily target. He said the vaccination output for the second day, Nov.30, was still forthcoming.

"We're quite optimistic that we will near the target," he said.

Referring to the planned second round of the vaccination drive, Nograles said, "Basically the idea really is to continue to ramp up ."

"We will assess the numbers and then we'll move after our assessment," the Palace official added.