MANILA - Filipinos who have yet to receive their coronavirus shots are urged to get vaccinated against the disease for a better Christmas this year even amid a health crisis.

National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 head of strategic communications on current operations Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor urged those who are having second thoughts to seize the opportunity to get vaccinated especially now that vaccine supply is plenty.

"Our target is to have a better Christmas in 2021, that we will not experience last year's Christmas. So we encourage our countrymen to get vaccinated," Mayor said in an interview after the arrival of the 1,017,900 doses of Pfizer vaccine Thursday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City.

The latest vaccine shipment, procured by the government through the Asian Development Bank, brings to 139 million doses the total vaccine doses that arrived in the country since February.

Mayor said some 34.5 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against the disease while those who received their first dose are 43.8 million.

"The arrival of vaccines will continue. We again urge our fellow Filipinos who are not yet vaccinated to get inoculated," Mayor said, reminding the public about the National Vaccination Days from November 29 to December 1.

"This is a whole nation approach, government agencies such as PNP (Philippine National Police) AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) the local government units, and the private sector are participating so that we can attain our objective to get vaccinated five million every day. So that could be 15 million for the three-day vaccination program of our government. So again for those who have not been vaccinated, let's get vaccinated," Mayor said.

NTF data showed that as of November 25, a total of 78,528,357 vaccine doses have been administered nationwide.

Meanwhile, the government's national cold-chain and logistics partner is gearing up for the national vaccination days.

In a statement, PharmaServ Express assured that its cold-chain facility in Marikina City has enough capability to package and distribute the vaccines that require different temperatures at any given time.

The cold-chain facility uses a biothermal case system in packaging the vaccines for safe delivery to the local government units.

The three-day vaccination program aims to inoculate 15 million individuals across 16 regions outside Metro Manila to boost the country's inoculation rate.

This would help the government achieve its goal of inoculating at least 54 million Filipinos before end-December. (PNA)