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The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday, revise its target number of population needed to be vaccinated to attain “herd immunity” after COVID-19 Delta variant undermine the efficacy of vaccine.

The emergence of the more virulent Delta variant “has really affected everything,” Health spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press conference.

“Herd immunity has been affected… That is really a very long-term goal among all the countries in the world,” she said.

Instead of herd immunity, the government wants to attain population protection or the full vaccination of healthcare workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities against COVID-19.

“What we are trying to achieve right now is population protection,” she said.

“Ang sinasabi sa atin ng mga eksperto, hindi na lang 70 percent ng herd immunity ang kailangan natin. Kailangan natin ng mas mataas it can be 80 or 90 percent dahil bumababa ang efficacy ng bakuna,” Vergeire said.

“Kaya ang naging re-strategy natin (Our new strategy now is)… let’s just achieve population protection at this point because we know that the vaccines had been affected by this Delta variant,” she said.

Earlier, the DOH said it expects the National Capital Region to attain population protection by November.

As of September 1, 2021, the Philippines has fully vaccinated 14.1 million people, while 20 million others have received their first dose.