About 71 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and over 954,000 Filipinos have received their second booster shot, a health official said Tuesday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said almost 15.3 million individuals have an up-to-date vaccination or have received their first booster shot while 71 million are fully vaccinated as of July 11.

“Also, more than 9.6 million adolescents are fully inoculated along with more than 3.7 million children fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, more than 6.7 million senior citizens are already protected against Covid-19,” she said in an online media forum.

A person is considered fully vaccinated once he has completed the primary series of the coronavirus vaccine while the up-to-date population are fully vaccinated individuals who have received the first booster shot.

The country has logged 10,743 cases from July 5 to 11 and the average cases per day is 1,535 in the past week which is 41 percent higher than the previous week.

Vergeire said the National Capital Region (NCR) showed the steepest increases, exceeding 650 cases per day.

“In the NCR plus areas, the rest of Luzon, and Visayas, the sharp increases continue but it remains lower than 350 cases per day. Cases in Mindanao remain on a plateau starting mid-June and there are recorded small upticks in the recent few days, but cases remain less than 100 per day,” she said.

The country remains under low-risk classification for Covid-19 despite continued increase in cases.

The average daily attack rates across regions also remain low except for four regions – the NCR, Region 4-A (Calabarzon), Western Visayas and Cordillera Administrative Region with 1.3 to 4.44 cases per 100,000 population.

“With these, the national positivity rate has increased to 9.5 percent similar to the rates in mid-February,” Vergeire said.

To date, the national hospital admissions had a slight uptick by 12 percent.

A 1.8 percent decline in the number of dedicated beds for Covid-19 cases resulted in the slight increase in utilization rates by 3 percent.

The utilization rate of Covid-19 beds is now at 22 percent and still considered low-risk level.

The intensive care unit utilization rate remains at low risk at 17 percent. (PNA)