AROUND 30 million Filipinos are now fully-vaccinated against COVID-19.
As of Wednesday, November 10, a total of 30,108,097 Filipinos have received a second dose of the vaccine or completed the single-dose regimen manufactured by American drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.
Meanwhile, 35,656,279 individuals have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, the latest figures are still far from the national government’s target of 50 to 70 million individuals by the end of the year.
Early Wednesday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that they are planning to conduct a three-day national vaccination drive this November with the goal of vaccinating at least 15 million individuals.
“With this, we want to convey the message that every Filipino who will get vaccinated… Everyone who got vaccinated is a hero, all of you are heroes,” he said during his taped public address.
According to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., the proposed vaccination program will be called “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” and is tentatively scheduled to run from Nov. 29 to December 1.
He also said that around 4,000 to 5,000 vaccination sites across all of the 17 regions in the Philippines will be activated for the program.
Further, Galvez said that all government agencies, local government units (LGUs), civil society organizations, and private sector partners will be mobilized to participate in the vaccination drive.
Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), and Department of Transportation (DOTr) will be tapped for vaccine deployment.
After the vaccination drive, “sustainment operations” will be conducted by the government from Dec. 2 to 31 to ensure LGUs meet their vaccination targets by the end of the year.
“We will not end up with the national vaccination day. We will sustain the effort up to December 31,” said Galvez.
