More than 1.5 million health care workers, senior citizens, and persons who are immunocompromised or have comorbidities have received their second booster dose of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine.

Department of Health (DOH) Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said Tuesday about 71.9 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as of August 8.

Of the tally, more than 9.7 million are adolescents and 4.2 million are children.

About 16.6 million have received their first booster shot.

“Dalawang linggo na lang din po bago ang pasukan kaya hinihikayat po naming ang mga magulang at legal guardians na pataasin pa po natin ang bilang ng mga kabataang bakunado (It’s just two weeks till the opening of classes so we encourage parents and legal guardians to help increase the number of vaccinated children),” Vergeire said in an online media briefing.

She said all areas in the country are showing a continuous uptrend in cases, except the Visayas, which has shown signs of plateauing.

Vergeire said about 27,982 new cases have been logged nationally from August 2 to 8.

The country’s daily average number of cases is 3,997 in the recent week.

Vergeire also noted that the national weekly positivity rate has increased to 18.6 percent from last week’s 16.7 percent.

Hospital admissions of severe and critical cases in the intensive care units have shown an uptrend since July 2022, she said.

“The current number of severe and critical cases is at 772 or 9.3 percent of the total admissions,” she added.

However, the country’s health care utilization rate remains under the low-risk classification. (PNA)