Vaccinating more people against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains the best protection against the Omicron variant, a National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 adviser said Monday night.

“We hope that people will continue to get their booster doses and protection. The DOH (Department of Health) detected the third Omicron variant case. Our best protection is more vaccination,” Dr. Teodoro Herbosa said during the arrival of 976,950 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Herbosa said the government is trying hard to hit the target of fully vaccinating 54 million Filipinos before the end of the year.

He also expressed hope that the regions struck by Typhoon Odette will be able to catch up with their vaccination activities.

“There are areas — Regions 7, 8, and Caraga, that have stopped the vaccination because of concentration on relief efforts,” he said.

He also hoped that other regions such as Central Luzon and Calabarzon will be able to vaccinate more people for the government to meet its target.

Meanwhile, Herbosa thanked the US government for facilitating the delivery of the over 900,000 vaccine doses, which were procured through the Asian Development Bank.

Earlier on Monday, the Philippines also received over 1.7 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines donated by the US government.

As of December 19, the Philippines has administered 100,907,667 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Over 43.5 million are already fully inoculated, while 1,113,377 shots were administered as booster doses. (PNA)