MANILA, Philippines — The National Task Force Against COVID-19 estimates that nearly half of Metro Manila's residents will be fully vaccinated by August 20, when the two-week lockdown imposed over the capital region is set to expire.
Cities in the region have been ramping up their inoculation drives amid enhanced community quarantine which was hoisted over Metro Manila on August 6 in a bid to arrest the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19.
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The national government also allocated an extra four million doses to Metro Manila at the request of its local executives who set a new target of 250,000 daily shots for the ECQ period.
Halfway into the stringent lockdown, the target has not yet been reached by local government units.
But NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon told state TV on Friday that despite the challenges faced by LGUs, including their concurrent task of distributing aid to the poor, the task force is confident that the target will be reached in the coming days.
On August 12, he added, the capital region vaccinated some 230,000 people.
"The target for the end of August is to [fully] vaccinate 50% [of people] in Metro Manila," he said in Filipino. "Hopefully, after another week under ECQ...[we will reach] almost 50%..."
Nationwide: Daily vaccination rate hits 558K
According to Dizon, the government has consistently hit or surpassed its target of vaccinating at least 500,000 people a day nationwide.
From August 1 to 12, he said some 6.7 million Filipinos were vaccinated, bringing the total number of jabs administered since the start of the inoculation campaign to 26.7 million.
This, Dizon noted, is equivalent to an average daily vaccination rate of 558,000 — a significant improvement from the average of 320,000 seen in July.
Government figures as of August 11 show that only 11% of Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Some 12.9% of the population have received a first dose of the vaccine.
To meet its already-adjusted goal of vaccinating 50 to 60 million of the population by yearend, the government would have to fully vaccinate at least 38 million more people in less than five months.
Its original goal was to vaccinate 70 million people to achieve herd immunity in the country.
— Bella Perez-Rubio