DOH: Past week's daily vaccination cross 145,000

MANILA — The total number of Filipinos who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 has crossed the 1-million mark, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Thursday.

In its latest vaccine statistics, the agency said the total number of those already fully vaccinated against the virus as of May 25 has reached 1,029,261.

According to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group's monitoring, this comprises 1.77 percent of the government's revised 58-million yearend target to achieve herd immunity.

• READ: No more 'herd immunity'; gov't now eyes 'population protection' vs COVID-19

The government, meanwhile, has administered a total of 4,495,375 coronavirus shots since it started its inoculation program in March.

Of this figure, 3,466,314 are first vaccine doses.

The average number of people being vaccinated daily reached 145,243 in the past week, according to the health department.

But this is lower compared to testing czar Vince Dizon's presentation to the media on May 25, where the average number of people vaccinated was at 170,069 as of 4:43 a.m. on the said date.

ABS-CBN News has clarified this discrepancy with the DOH but it has yet to respond.

Meanwhile, the 7-day inoculation average is higher than the 108,540 recorded the week before.

Half million inoculations daily to achieve immunity target

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido estimates the country will reach the minimum 58 million target by the end of the year if government starts inoculating 507,000 people daily starting Thursday.

The national government seeks to increase the country's daily vaccination rate to 500,000 people a day to attain herd immunity at least by yearend.

Assuming that the daily vaccination pace is around 170,000, Guido said, the government would only reach its target by March 2023.

'POPULATION PROTECTION' AT THE END OF 2021

The health department earlier this week said instead of herd immunity, the Philippines is now eyeing “population protection” against the novel coronavirus before 2021 ends.

Population protection, according to Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, means preventing Filipinos from dying or being hospitalized due to COVID-19 by having a "bigger population" immunized from the virus.

• READ: PH eyes 500,000 daily COVID-19 vaccination to achieve herd immunity

Herd immunity, on the other hand, is when enough members of a population are already vaccinated, preventing further spread of the virus.

COVID-19 jabs currently available in the country are brands AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sinovac, and Sputnik V.

As of Wednesday, the country has recorded a total of 1.193 million COVID-19 cases, of which more than 46,000 are active infections.

• READ: PH records 5,310 new COVID-19 cases,150 more deaths

The country's death toll due to the virus stood at over 20,000.

— With reports from Katrina Domingo, ABS-CBN News

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