Almost one million Filipinos have completed their vaccination against coronavirus disease, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said on Tuesday.

In an online briefing, NTF Deputy Chief Implementer Vivencio Dizon said the total COVID-19 vaccine doses that have been administered reached to 4,305,575 as of May 24.

Of the administered doses, 3,318,646 were for the first shot.

"Almost one million (individuals) were given the second dose. So, nearly one million Filipinos have their two doses of the vaccines already," Dizon said.

He noted that the vaccination program of the government has improved a lot from an average of about 5,000 jabs per day during the first week of March to 166,000 average vaccinations per day now that the program has been on its 12th week.

Dizon said when more vaccines arrive in the coming months, the government is eyeing to increase to 500,000 per day the number of people being vaccinated.

For the National Capital Region, the nearby six provinces, namely, Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Batangas, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao or NCR Plus 8, Dizon said they hope to vaccinate 70 percent of the population before Christmas.

"The target is to reach 120,000 per day in NCR and 200,000 plus in NCR Plus 8," he said.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, in the same briefing, said as per target of President Rodrigo Duterte, "we can have the population protection, particularly in Metro Manila Plus and our target date is November 27." Celerina Monte/DMS