Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 18) — More than 70 million Filipinos are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 announced on Saturday.
The task force has counted that 70,005,247 people or 77.78% of the target population have already been fully vaccinated as of June 17, or around 15 months after the immunization drive began in the country.
It noted a total of over 153 million doses have been administered, with some 74.8 million individuals getting at least one dose.
Meanwhile, over 7.4 million adult Filipinos have received at least one booster shot, including 648,555 who have gotten two.
Currently, only senior citizens, health workers, and some immunocompromised individuals are eligible to get their second booster.
“The government’s pediatric vaccination also continues to gain momentum, with 3,217,367 children aged five to 11 already fully vaccinated,” the NTF Against COVID-19 said.
“For minors aged 12 to 17, 9,487,745 have already received their full doses,” it added.
In a statement, the task force’s chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. thanked health workers and volunteers who helped the government reach its inoculation goal.
“Tulad ng aming ipinangako, naabot na natin ang target na [Like we promised, we have achieved our target of] 70 million fully vaccinated individuals,” he said. “This is our parting gift to the next administration. We hope that our new leaders will also prioritize our vaccination program and continue to build an immunity wall among our people.”
Galvez again urged the public to get boosted against COVID-19 if eligible, stressing that vaccine immunity from the primary doses wanes over time.
