The government failed to reach its target to inoculate five million people during the third batch of its mass vaccination this month, a Department of Health (DOH) official said on Saturday.

"Although we did not achieve our five million target, we are still happy that we have an achievement of at least 3.5 million. It is an addition to the vaccination in the country," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing.

"We will just continue to ramp-up our vaccinations so that we can be able to cover as much of the population as possible," she added.

Vergiere said among the challenges encountered during the vaccination is the availability of healthcare workers because they have to divide their manpower between the Bayanihan Bakunahan and children’s vaccination.

"Another thing would be the healthcare workers. They are not just for COVID-19 vaccination. They also have other health related works in their areas. That is why the number of our healthcare workers was lessened because it also includes the sickness of some of our healthcare workers," she said.

Vergiere said to increase vaccinations in the country, the DOH is also planning to conduct house-to-house vaccination.

"Some of our regions already have high vaccination rates. So, we see that we really need to go to them. The strategy would be house-to-house to go to the far-flung areas. This may be our next intervention for our vaccination," she said.

Vergiere said so far a total 62.3 million individuals or 68.8 percent of the target 77 million are fully vaccinated, of which 9.6 million got their booster shots. Robina Asido/DMS