People flock to the Dapitan Arcade in Quezon City to purchase Christmas decorations on October 19, 2021 days after the capital region was put under the looser quarantine Alert Level 3 which allows for the opening of more business establishments. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News
MANILA - The Philippine government wants to immunize at least 1.5 million Filipinos daily before Christmas.
According to Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the government is raising its daily vaccination target to that number to achieve a safe Christmas.
"We are now raising our daily target to 1.5 million a day in order to achieve a happy Christmas this year," Galvez said in a taped public briefing aired late Monday.
The government also wants to vaccinate at least 50 million of the priority population by Christmas.
At least 24,498,753 people were fully vaccinated as of Monday, representing 31.76 percent of the target.
Galvez did not mention the average daily vaccination rate, but data from Reuters showed the Philippines averaged about 374,000 doses daily.
As of Tuesday, the Philippines has a total of 2,731,735 COVID-19 cases, of which 63,637 are active.