The Philippines on Saturday night received 1.2 million doses of Pfizer vaccine that would be used for pediatric inoculation, the National Task Force against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) said.

The government-procured jabs bring to more than 242 million doses the number of vaccines the country received since its initial rollout arrived in February 2021.

Even with the increasing number of children vaccinated, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje in an interview said the government would continue its campaign to encourage more parents and guardians to get their children inoculated.

“Una nating in-orient iyong ating mga health care workers tapos tuluy-tuloy ang ating pagbibigay ng information sa ating mga mothers saka iyong lahat na puwedeng influences (The first thing we do is we orient our health care workers then we continue to provide information to mothers and others who can influence them),” she said.

‘[N]akikita naman natin sa mga picture, iyong mga bata mismo na nagbakuna na nag-i-encourage sa kapwa-bata, sa mga nanay na pinabakunahan iyong kanilang anak ay makikita naman na okay ang pagbabakuna (We’ve observed that the children themselves encourage their playmates and we can see from the mothers of those vaccinated that the campaign is turning out well),” she added.

Based on the latest data from Malacañang, more than 738,000 minors aged 5 to 11 years old have completed their two vaccine doses, with some 8.89 million 12 to 17-year old children also fully vaccinated.

Overall, the country has so fully vaccinated 65.5 million people.

99% cops fully vaxxed

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police said almost all of its personnel have been fully vaccinated against the Covid-19.

Citing the latest data as of Sunday, a total of 224,460 out of 224,668 members of the PNP, or 99.02 percent of the force, are already fully vaccinated.

Of the figure, only 1,641 (0.73 percent) are partially vaccinated while 567 (0.25 percent) are unvaccinated. Among the fully vaccinated, 158,255 cops (71.14 percent) have received booster doses.

The PNP also logged no new cases on Sunday, leaving the number of active infections at six.

The PNP Health Office data showed 48,858 cases were recorded since the start of the pandemic two years ago, 48,724 recovered, and 128 died.

The last recorded fatality was on February 11. (PNA)