The National Task Force Against COVID-19 urged on Friday local government units to be patient amid their requests for more vaccines against coronavirus disease for their respective constituents.

In the "Laging Handa" public briefing, NTF Deputy Chief Implementer Vivencio Dizon admitted that the government has been experiencing difficulty in securing more vaccine supplies abroad.

"The truth is up to now, we still find hard time in getting the supply," he said.

But Dizon added what is good is many Filipinos who previously were hesitant to get the jab are willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

"That's why many of the local chief executives, many of our governors have been asking for more vaccines. And we apologize to our mayors, our governors because of the limited supply, we cannot provide more vaccines. Because many of our people want to be vaccinated, our supply is still insufficient," he said.

As of July 1, Dizon said more than 11 million people have been vaccinated in the country since the rollout in March.

Quoting NTF Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr., he said that the government expects more than 10 million vaccine doses this July, one million higher than the nine million doses received last moth.

Dizon also thanked the private sector for their initiative to vaccinate their employees. Celerina Monte/DMS