Over 40M Filipinos now fully vaccinated against COVID-19

Around 40.69 million Filipinos (36.9% of the population) are now fully inoculated against coronavirus since the government launched its vaccination program eight months ago.
The country’s health authorities’s goal is to inculate 30% of the population to achieve herd immunity.
According to the Department of Health’s data as of December 12, another 49.5% of Filipinos have received their first shot of the vaccine.
“We are targeting around seven million for the second dose, so we can achieve the goal to fully vaccinate 54 million individuals by the end of the year,” said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, an OCTA Research fellow and a University of Santo Tomas biological sciences professor, said that the country has achieved “substantial population immunity” against COVID-19, due to the decreased number of cases amid the easing of mobility restrictions.