COVID-19 shots administered in Philippines to reach 10M by next week — official

MANILA, Philippines — The National Task Force Against COVID-19 on Friday said it is confident that it will reach the "important milestone" of administering over 10 million jabs before the month of June is out. 

As of June 20, the Philippines has administred 8.4 million COVID-19 shots. Some 2.24 million Filipinos, representing 2.04% of the population, have been fully vaccinated. 

"We are confident that next week we will reach a very important milestone of 10 million doses [administered]," NTF deputy chief implementer Vince Dizon told state-run PTV in Filipino. 

"This is our target before the end of June and we are confident that before the end of June we will reach more than 10 million." 

Dizon said that Thursday marked the second day in a row that the number of Filipinos vacacinated reached 350,000, meaning some 700,000 people were inoculated within two days. 

NTF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr., also vaccine czar, last month said some 500,000 people need to be vaccinated daily or 3 million per week for the government to achieve its target of herd immunity in metropolitan areas and six other provinces in Calabarzon and Central Luzon by November 27. 

Since then, cases have surged in Visayas and Mindanao and some 10 cities outside Metro Manila been added to the government's priority list for vaccines. 

The Philippines has the second worst coronavirus outbreak in Southeast Asia, trailing only behind Indonesia.

On Thursday, local health authorities reported that COVID-19 deaths crossed the 24,000-mark and the national caseload rose to 1,378,260. 

— Bella Perez-Rubio with a report from Xave Gregorio