68.8M more individuals receive first doses, 10.2 million booster doses given so far
(Eagle News) – The Philippines has already fully vaccinated 63.2 million people, while 68.8 million have already received their first doses of the Covid-19 vaccines, Malacanang said on Tuesday, March 1, as the country marked the first year of its mass vaccination campaign to defeat the pandemic.
March 1 was also the start of de-escalation of Metro Manila and 38 other areas which were placed under the least restrictive Alert Level 1.
“The timing could not have been more appropriate. Unang anibersaryo din po ngayon ng rollout ng ating mass vaccination program kontra COVID-19. Sa loob ng isang taon, marami na po ang nangyari,” said Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Alexei Nograles.
“At the beginning, we faced numerous challenges as we worked to address logistics and supply issues and to quell unfounded and baseless fears about these life-saving vaccines. But with the commitment and dedication of our frontliners and public servants in the national government and our local government units, we launched the country’s largest, most extensive vaccination program in our nation’s history,” he said.
Nograles said that as of February 28, there were 135,747,294 total Covid-19 vaccine doses which had been administered in the country.
Citing the data from the National Covid-19 vaccination dashboard, Nograles said that over 68.8 million Filipinos have already received first vaccine doses. Another 63.2 million Filipinos have also been fully vaccinated as of Monday, February 28.
Nograles said that more than 10.2 million booster doses have also been administered in the country so far.
As to the pediatric vaccination, Malacanang said that over 8.4 million children aged 12 to 17 have already been fully vaccinated, while at least 736,880 children aged five to 11 have received their first Covid-19 vaccine doses.
-PHL to continue aggressive vaccination campaign-
“We will closely observe the implementation of Alert Level 1 while we continue our aggressive vaccination efforts,” Nograles said citing what vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr., had earlier declared.
He said that the country would also focus on vaccinating senior citizens who have not yet received Covid-19 jabs, and also children aged five to 11.
The government would also prioritize giving more booster doses to the population, he said.
(Eagle News Service)
