President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday urged the public to get vaccinated as the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines is expected to reach 100 million doses by the end of October.

“I now encourage you–those who have yet to receive vaccines–to get inoculated,” Duterte said in his taped Talk to the People.

Duterte said the government may expand the vaccination program to the general population “and hopefully also, our children within October.”

The Philippines has so far received 69,699,340 doses from various Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers.

He said the government is targeting to administer at least 55 million doses of Covid-19 by the end of October.

“I am pleased to report that over the past several days, the number of new Covid-19 cases have been declining and the reproduction rate has also been decreasing. Maybe the last two days, there was a light spike, but overall all, over the entire country–it is decreasing,” he said.

Duterte cited positive developments in the pandemic situation in the Philippines.

“I do not want to advance this theory. But under the police power of the State, everybody can be compelled to be vaccinated,” he said.

A total of 43,933,886 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered nationwide, with 23,626,764 doses were given as first shots while 20,307,122 Filipinos or 26 percent of the country’s eligible population are now fully vaccinated as of Sept. 26.

The majority of the vaccines were administered to individuals residing in Metro Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao–surpassing above 50 percent of their respective target population for the Covid-19 vaccination program. (PNA)