The government is seeking to fully vaccinate 50 percent of people in Metro Manila before the end of August, an official of the National Task Force against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) said Friday, Aug. 13.

Amid the rising number of infections and the threat of the highly contagious Delta variant, the National Capital Region (NCR) has been placed under a two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) until Aug. 20.

Aside from the imposition of the strict lockdown, the government has downloaded additional 4 million vaccine doses to boost the inoculation efforts in the region during the ECQ period.

“Ang target natin sa katapusan ng Agosto ay maka 50 percent tayo na bakunado sa NCR, fully vaccinated (Our target for the end of August is to have fully vaccinate 50 percent in NCR),” said Secretary Vince Dizon, NTF Against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer and testing czar.

“Siguro pagkatapos ng isa pang linggo ng ECQ... eh almost 50 percent short of that graph, pero puspusan tayo (Maybe after another week of ECQ... almost 50 percent short of that graph, but we're in full swing),” he added.

In a public briefing, Dizon said that the average coronavirus vaccination in Metro Manila has reached 231,000 jabs per day.

But the number is still below the government’s target of vaccinating 250,000 individuals per day during the ECQ period in the NCR.

“Kahapon, umabot ng 231,000 ang nabakuna ng buong National Capital Region (Yesterday, up to 231,000 doses were administered in the National Capital Region),” he said.

“Malapit na nating maabot ang ating target pero marami pa ring paghamon. Pero naniniwala tayo na maabot din natin ito sa mga susunod na araw (We are close to reaching our target, but there are still many challenges. However, we believe we can reach it in the next few days),” he added.

Dizon said the country’s average daily vaccination currently stands at 558,000 jabs per day, an increase of more than 200,000 jabs daily compared to the average of 320,000 jabs per day back in July.