The Philippines has already administered 64,947,366 doses of coronavirus vaccines, with 29,809,085 Filipinos fully protected against severe infection as of Tuesday.

The country’s average daily vaccination rate recorded in the past seven days has increased to 781,958 doses, compared to 459,876 doses the previous week.

On Tuesday afternoon, National Task Force Against Covid chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., welcomed the arrival of 793,900 AstraZeneca doses donated by the German government, which brought the country’s total received vaccines to 114,245,400 doses.

In an interview at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Galvez reiterated the need to address vaccine hesitancy among senior citizens.

“We need to concentrate our vaccination on the elderly. Right now, we have 59 percent of the coverage of the elderly. This month of November, we will try to push for 70 percent,” he said.

Meanwhile, Galvez expressed optimism that the National Capital Region (NCR) will be able to vaccinate 100 percent of its eligible population before this year ends.

“Imagine ang first dose nila is 98 percent then dumagadag pa ‘yung 1.2 million na mga bata na babakunahan nila so nakikita ko ang NCR, ‘yung honest to goodness [opinion] natin is makakaya niya (Imagine, they already administered 98 percent of their first dose with additional 1.2 million children to be vaccinated, so I see that in NCR, in my honest to goodness opinion, I think they will be able to hit it) by end of December,” he said.

The government targets to fully vaccinate at least 50 million and up to 70 million Filipinos by end of this year to achieve population protection against Covid-19. (PNA)