THE number of individuals that have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in the Philippines has breached 10 million on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021.
The milestone was marked with a ceremonial vaccination led by Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III at SM Megamall on Thursday, Aug. 5.
Secretary Vince Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19, said during a Malacañang press briefing that fully vaccinated individuals reached 10,282,152 on Aug. 4.
A total of 22,488,705 doses have been administered to 12,206,553 individuals since inoculations started on March 1, 2021.
Dizon said daily inoculations exceeded the government target of 500,000 on July 28 and reached a high of 702,013 on Aug. 3.
The fully vaccinated individuals comprise around 13 percent of the government’s vaccination target of 77.7 million and around 9.3 percent of the Philippine population estimated at 109 million.
During a House of Representatives committee on health hearing, DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said the total doses administered in the recent seven days from July 28 to Aug. 3 exceeded 3.7 million with the daily average computed at 529,911.
She said inoculations increased as more vaccines arrived.
From only 777,908 doses in the first month of implementation of the vaccination program, the number of inoculations soared to more than 9.9 million in the month of July.
The Philippines has received 37,275,800 vaccine doses, of which 15,836,260 were donated and 21,439,540 were procured by the national government, private sector and local government units (LGUs).