The government will increase the target population that it intends to vaccinate against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from 70 percent to around 80 to 90 percent, the country's vaccine czar revealed Wednesday, Sept. 8.

Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. said the current vaccination target of 70 percent will no longer suffice to achieve the so-called herd immunity due to the threat of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

He said this means that from 77 million eligible population (out of 110 million total population), the country will now aim to inoculate around 90 million Filipinos.

"Ang pagkakasabi ng maraming expert, ang antas na maproteksyunan ang ating population ay kailangang iakyat ng 80 to 90 percent. Sa target na 77 million, mga siguro 90 million ang ita-target natin (According to many experts, the level of protection of our population should be increased to 80 to 90 percent. In our 77 million target, we could set a new target of 90 million)," he said in a radio interview over ABSCBN's Teleradyo.

Since the target would be raised, Galvez said the period to achieve herd immunity will also be moved to first quarter next year, instead of the original plan by the end of 2021.

"Ang 77 million pipilitin namin na by end of the year and 'yong herd immunity na 90 percent by end of first quarter ng 2022 (We will try to accomplish the 77 million Filipinos by end of the year while the herd immunity with 90 percent will be by end of first quarter of 2022)," he said.

However, the vaccination rate apparently slowed down in the past weeks due to a number of reasons, including the delayed arrival of vaccines and the lack of manpower in the vaccination sites.

In the past seven days, there were 2,739,572 administered doses which translated to an average of 391,367 doses per day. This was fewer compared to the 438,136 daily administered jabs in the preceding week.

Galvez explained that there was a "slippage" in the arrival of vaccines since Moderna failed to deliver 1.8 million doses in the first week of September.

COVAX facility, the global vaccine-sharing initiate, also could not fulfill its commitment of providing six million doses to the Philippines. In return, the vaccine czar said COVAX promised to give 4.9 million doses of Pfizer to the country this month.

Further, Galvez said doctors and nurses manning the vaccination sites were forced to return and man the hospitals due to the surge of cases.

"Ang iba nagkakasakit, ang iba nagkakaroon ng leave kaya ang ginagawa natin continuous ang ano natin sa DOH na magkaroon ng manpower regeneration (Some of them fell ill, others were filing their leave so we are continuously with the DOH to do manpower regeneration)," he said.

As of Sept. 5, a total of 35,838,964 doses have already been administered nationwide, according to the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19.

More than 15 million Filipinos were deemed fully vaccinated while 20.8 million others have received their first dose.