With the anticipated arrival of more coronavirus vaccines, the government is optimistic the country could inoculate 70 million people before the end of the year and hopefully celebrate a "maskless" holiday season.

According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, the country's vaccination rate is expected to accelerate following the recent signing of a supply agreement for 40 million doses of Pfizer vaccines. The coronavirus vaccines procured by the government from the American pharmaceutical giant are expected to be delivered to the country starting August.

"Mayroon nagtatanong kung darating ng Agosto 'yang 40 million, aabot ba tayo sa 70 million by December, siyempre (Some are asking if the 40 million vaccines will arrive on August, can meet the target of 70 million vaccinated by December? Of course)," Roque said during a televised press briefing Monday, June 21.

"Kung 500,000 per day 'yan, 10 days is 5 million so kinakailangan lang natin 20 days para maubos ang first dose ng dumating na 40 million na Pfizer (If the vaccination rate is 500,000 per day, where 5 million can be administered in 10 days, we will only need 20 days to administer the first dose of the 40 million Pfizer jabs that will arrive in the country)," he said.

READ: PH makes biggest COVID-19 vaccine procurement with 40M doses of Pfizer

As of June 19, the government has administered 8.2 million doses of COVID shots, wherein a total of 2,210,134 persons have been fully vaccinated. The fully vaccinated people included 1,059,574 health workers, 542,647 seniors, 509,739 people with comorbidity, and 8,174 essential workers.

At present, the country has received 12.7 million doses of COVID-19 shots from various sources including Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Gamaleya and Pfizer.

The country's vaccine supply target is 158 million doses. So far, the country has secured the delivery of 113 million doses from vaccine suppliers. In addition, COVAX facility committed to supply 44 million doses to the country this year. China has donated a million Sinovac jabs.

The Palace meantime welcomed the visit of medical experts from Israel in the Philippines to share best practices related to the vaccination effort. Roque noted that Israel is one of the countries that lifted its mask wearing policy outdoors due to its massive vaccination drive.

"Importante ang pagbisita nitong mga kaibigan natin galing Israel dahil nais din natin magkaroon ng maskless Christmas (The visit of our friends from Israel is important because we also want to have a maskless Christmas)," he said.

The government originally planned to give free inoculations to as many as 58 million to 70 million Filipinos to attain herd immunity before the end of the year. But due to the world's tight vaccine supply, it bared plans to initially vaccinate 9.7 million people in National Capital Region to achieve population protection by November.

READ: Gov't targets COVID-19 jabs for 9.7 M in NCR by November 2021