Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday lauded the city government of San Juan for successfully vaccinating 100 percent of its target population with first dose of Covid-19 jabs.

Roque compared this achievement to the Battle of San Juan del Monte or the first battle of the Philippine Revolution which sought Philippine independence from Spain on August 30, 1896.

“Kung dito po sa San Juan unang nagwagi ang Pilipino sa kalabang dayuhan, dito po muli sa San Juan una tayo nagwagi sa kalabang Covid dahil 100 percent nabakunahan na ang mga taga San Juan. (In San Juan, Filipinos first won against the foreign opponent, here again in San Juan we first won against Covid because 100 percent of the people of San Juan have been vaccinated),” he said in a press conference at Center Mall of Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan City.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Roque said 96,610 or 112.18 percent of San Juan city’s population of 123,031 have been inoculated with their first Covid-19 shot.

“Sang-ayon naman po sa survey muli ng Philippine Statistics Authority, ang populasyon po ng San Juan ay lumaki. Ito po’y naging 123,031. Ang 70 percent ng populasyon na ‘yan ay 86,122. Ang San Juan ngayon, nakabakuna na ng 96,610, 112.18 percent ng pangalawang estimate ng Philippine Statistics Authority (According to another survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the population of San Juan has grown. This turned out to be 123,031. The 70 percent of that population is 86,122. San Juan has now vaccinated 96,610, 112.18 percent of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s second estimate),” he added.

Meanwhile, Roque urged San Juaneños to complete their second Covid-19 jabs to be fully protected against the highly infectious respiratory disease.

“Kinakailangan lang po tuluyan tayong magwagi dahil nung unang kasaysayan, bahagya lang po ang pagwawagi nila. Tuluyan po tayong magwawagi kung makukumpleto natin ang second dose ng mga taga-San Juan (We just have to keep winning because in the first history, they only slightly won. We will always win if we can complete the second twelve of the people of San Juan),” he said.

San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora said the Covid-19 active cases in the city significantly dropped from as high as 1,000 to just 79.

“Nakikita natin ang (We can see) correlation but I don’t want the people to be complacent,” Zamora said, urging the people to keep on observing health safety protocols against the virus.

The Philippines has so far procured 89 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines worth USD1 billion, Roque said.

Of the amount, USD400 million have been paid for by the government sourced from the country’s 2021 national budget and loans from multilateral financial institutions, he added.

Data from the Department of Health showed that the Philippines has so far administered over 13 million Covid-19 vaccines.

A total of 13,196,282 individuals have been vaccinated against Covid-19. Of this number, 3,526,342 have completed their second dose.

The government aims to achieve population protection by year-end by vaccinating 40 to 50 percent of the population, especially in priority areas. (PNA)