The government expects the average daily vaccination rate will increase after the long weekend with more Covid-19 jabs coming in, a health official said Tuesday.

The daily jabs administered slowed down a bit to 459,876 doses during the last seven days that included the weekend leading to the All Saints’ Day holiday on Monday, down from the previous week’s 488,506.

As more vaccines arrive, including the state-procured 2.7 million doses of Sputnik V on Tuesday afternoon, the government is eyeing to inject between 1 and 1.5 million doses daily beginning next week.

Overall, the Philippines has received 108,912,460 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, both procured and donated.

“We want to raise our target to five million per week if we can strive for one million per day,” Department of Health Undersecretary and National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) chair Myrna Cabotaje said at the Laging Handa press briefing.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier urged local government units to speed up their vaccination drives to meet the government’s goal of achieving population protection by the end of the year.

To date, the Philippines has administered 59,473,662 doses of Covid-19 vaccines nationwide, with 27,442,969 already fully protected.

Cabotaje said residents in low-risk areas should also strive to be vaccinated to prevent the future surge.

“All the more na habang hindi pa man tumataas ‘yung mga kaso nila protektado na sila para hindi makapasok ‘yung mga nagkakasakit at kung magkasakit man sila hindi gaanong seryoso, not needing hospitalization and even ma-avoid ‘yung deaths (All the more they need to get protected while the cases are not yet increasing so that infections will not be transmitted and even if they get infected, it will not be as serious as needing hospitalization and even avoiding deaths),” she said.

Echoing repeated statements by officials and experts, Cabotaje said all Covid-19 vaccines are effective against the dreaded disease regardless of brands. (PNA)