DAVAO CITY — The onslaught of typhoon #Odette slowed down the government’s vaccination program as areas hard hit by the typhoon are yet to be fully vaccinated .
Presidential Adviser on Covid-19 Response and testing czar, Secretary Vince Dizon, said the typhoon devastated parts of Visayas and Mindanao last week and ran smack into the second leg of the nationwide drive “Bayanihan, Bakunahan”.
But he said, the government remains optimistic it can achieve population protection against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) before 2021 ends by fully vaccinating about eight million more.
“We are trying to hit our target we are trying especially in areas hard hit by the typhoon,” he added.
The latest data from the National Covid-19 vaccination dashboard showed the Philippines has already administered 105,118,508 doses nationwide since the rollout started in March.
Of the total number, 46,954,697 Filipinos have completed their primary doses and 1,341,314 received their booster shots or additional doses.
Dizon said the National Task Force Against Covid-19 will also speed up the utilization of single-dose Janssen vaccines to meet the target 54 million fully vaccinated Filipinos until December 31.
The government has noted the continuing downtrend of Covid-19 cases in the country as the positivity rate was lowered to only 0.8 percent from the previous 1 percent, which is they described as a big accomplishment to the vaccination program.