By October, the government expects at least 85 percent of the eligible population in the National Capital Region (NCR) will be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, while ramping up the national inoculation program to up to 50 percent in the Plus 8 areas of Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Pampanga, and Rizal.

As of early September, about 52.3 percent or five million NCR residents have completed their vaccine doses while 81.72 percent or about eight million have the first dose.

“Ang atin din pong target is by the end of the month, mag-80 percent na po na fully vaccinated ang NCR kasi nagse-second dose na po sila. Kayang kaya po nila po ‘yun (Our target by the end of the month is to fully vaccinate 80 percent in NCR since they are now having second doses. They can do it). Other key cities can raise the vaccination to 50 percent,” National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 chief Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said during President Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk to the People aired Tuesday morning.

Galvez, also the vaccine czar, said about 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses will be delivered until October, allowing the government to expand the vaccination to other sectors.

“We will ramp up our deliveries na (so) at least maka-reach po tayo ng (we could reach) 100 million by the end of the month so that we can open up more vaccination for other sectors like the children and the adolescent,” he said.

The government also plans to increase the daily average vaccination rate between 500,000 and 800,000 doses.

The average daily jabs administered in the last seven days stood at 366,765 doses.

So far, the Philippines has already received 66,699,340 doses, with additional 391,950 doses of government-procured Pfizer vaccines arriving on Tuesday night.

Of the total vaccine stockpile, 44,964,020 doses were procured by the national government, 16,067,680 doses were acquired through the COVAX Facility, 5,028,500 were ordered by the private sector and local government units (LGUs), and 3,639,140 donated by other countries.

In September alone, the government received 17,798,750 doses, with 10,654,990 already administered.

To date, the Philippines has administered 44,361,285 doses nationwide, with 23,777,705 given as first doses and 20,583,580 as second doses.

“For the month of September, our throughput was reduced to 10 million due to vaccine challenges. Deliveries started during the middle of the month and the surge of cases diverted the attention of LGUs,” Galvez said. (PNA)