The Philippines is expected to reach the milestone of administering a total of 10 million coronavirus vaccine doses by next week, a leader of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) said on Friday.

Authorities have received at least 16.2 million COVID-19 shots, of which around 8.9 million have been administered as of Tuesday.

"Kampante tayo na sa susunod na linggo, magri-reach tayo ng napakaimportanteng milestone na aabot tayo ng 10 milyon," said NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon.

"Ito po ang target natin bago matapos ang buwan ng Hunyo at kampante tayo na bago matapos ang June aabot na tayo ng mahigit 10 milyon," he said in a televised public briefing.

(We are confident that next week, we will reach the very important milestone of 10 million administered doses. This is our target before June ends and we are confident that we will reach 10 million.)

He said Thursday marked the second straight day that daily vaccinations reached 350,000. This means the Philippines administered some 750,000 vaccine jabs on June 23 and 24 alone, noted the official.

The Philippines has fully vaccinated at least 2.2 million of its 100-million population against the novel coronavirus. This is still quite far from government's target to inoculate at east 58 million Filipinos by yearend to protect the population from the infection.

The Philippines has the second highest COVID-19 tally in Southeast Asia, with about 1.3 million coronavirus infections and some 24,000 deaths.