MANILA— Malacañang on Wednesday acknowledged that "much more" needed to be done to improve the COVID-19 vaccination drive, after a survey showed a third of Filipinos had no access to the jabs, which could leave millions vulnerable to a spike in coronavirus infections.

The Social Weather Stations (SWS) said on Tuesday that 68 percent of adult Filipinos have "easy" access to COVID-19 vaccination sites, while 29 percent said these centers are inaccessible to them.

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Easy access to COVID-19 shots for almost 7 in 10 respondents "is a result of the combined hard work" of government agencies, local governments, and private sector, said Palace spokesman Harry Roque.

"While much have been achieved since we began, we recognize that much more needs to be done," he said in a statement.

To improve access to and the pace of vaccination, government is procuring more jabs, increasing personnel by considering pharmacists and medical interns as vaccinators, and tapping barangay health centers as immunization sites, Roque said.

He said other initiatives include using malls as vaccination sites, rolling out drive-thru inoculation, and 24-hour and house-to-house immunizations.

"Rest assured that we will not rest until we achieve population protection, for no one is safe, as the President underscored, until all of us are safe," the Palace official said.

Among the hardest hit by the pandemic in Asia, the Philippines has recorded some 1.7 million coronavirus infections and 30,400 deaths.

The government aims to immunize up to 70 million of its 109 million population to achieve herd immunity and safely reopen the economy. At least 12.7 million people are now fully vaccinated.

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