Around 19 percent of the 180,000-strong Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have already been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Capt. Jonathan Zata, chief of AFP public affairs office, said Wednesday, June 16, that more than 35,000 AFP frontliners belonging to A1 (military-medical frontliners), A2 (senior citizens) and A3 (military personnel with co-morbidities) categories have already received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
He said 34,390 military personnel were inoculated with two doses of CoronaVac-Sinovac jab while 1,155 more already got their second dose of AstraZeneca.
"These are the frontliners, our doctors, nurses, those who are deployed in quarantine assistance and checkpoints. They were the ones who got the priority," Zata said.
Meanwhile, the vaccination of other military personnel and civilian human resources under A4 category (economic frontliners) kicked off last Monday with the allocation of more vaccines from the national government.
According to Zata, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana was among the frontliners who received two doses of CoronaVac-Sinovac vaccine.
As of June 15, a total of 12,302 AFP personnel have been infected with COVID-19, Zata said.
Of these, 11,442 have recovered from the disease, 30 have perished, and 553 are active cases or those who have yet to be healed. There were also 238 "suspect" cases and 187 "probable" cases who are on quarantine.
Zata said re-infection among military personnel is prevalent as they were often at the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19.
Further, he said vaccine hesitancy among the military personnel is manageable as he expressed hope that the entire military organization will be protected against COVID-19 with the availability of more jabs.
"So far, it is not that high. The bottomline is that the troops should get the vaccine whatever brand is available. At the end of the day, what's important is that they are vaccinated," Zata stressed.