National gov’t eyes 54-M fully vaxxed Filipinos by end of 2021
SUBIC, Zambales – The national government’s target: 54 million fully vaccinated Filipinos by the end of 2021.
During the launching of the second round of the Bayanihan Bakunahan National Vaccination Days in Subic town, National Action Plan Against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer and Testing Czar Secretary Vince Dizon noted the government only needs to vaccinate approximately 11 million individuals to reach the milestone.
“As of yesterday [December 15], a total of 42.6 million Filipinos have already received complete doses of COVID-19 vaccines. So, roughly 11 million to go. We can do that [through] bayanihan,” he said.
Dizon underscored that the single-shot Janssen vaccine will be of big help in inoculating 11 million individuals in the remainder of the year as one shot of Janssen can fully vaccinate a person.
He said that the arrival of more than 9 million doses of Janssen vaccine in the country started this Tuesday.
Relative to this, about 70,000 doses of Janssen vaccine will be delivered to the provincial government of Zambales and municipal government of Subic to increase the vaccination uptake among their constituents.
“We are asking and pleading with our local government units of Zambales and Subic to administer all these vaccines by December 27,” he noted.
On another note, Dizon shared another milestone in the government’s vaccination effort, which is to administer 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of December 16.
“Many said that it’s impossible due to the shortage of vaccine supply. But we are confident that by today, we will bridge 100 million COVID-19 doses administered [to the public],” Dizon stated.
He also mentioned that the Philippines climbed from 103rd to 57th in the Nikkei COVID-19 Recovery Index, which ranks more than 120 countries on infection management, social mobility and vaccine roll-outs at the end of each month.
“We are ahead of Australia, the United States of America, Thailand, Singapore, Germany and Vietnam. This is a testament of the government’s aggressive vaccination strategy, and prevent, detect, isolate, treat and reintegrate strategy, and the cooperation of the Filipino people,” Dizon said.
