Manila, Dec 21 (IANS): The Philippines on Monday reported 1,721 new confirmed coronavirus cases cases, which increased the country's overall infection tally to 461,505, the Department of Health (DOH).

The DOH said 82 more patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 429,207, while the death toll spikes to 8,957 following 10 new fatalities, reports Xinhua news agency.

In a statement on Monday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that around 22 million Filipinos are "guaranteed" to receive the Covid-19 vaccine from the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative.

"We are guaranteed (to get Covid-19 vaccines enough) for 20 per cent of our population, but we won't get it all at the same time," she told a virtual media forum.

"We are definitely getting an allocation throughout next year."

The Philippines has secured 2.6 million doses from the British firm AstraZeneca.

Last month, the Philippine private sector signed an agreement with the firm to buy 2.6 million doses to augment the government's procurement of the vaccines.

The Philippines aims to vaccinate about 60 million Filipinos in three to five years to achieve herd immunity, a vaccination term in which a population becomes protected from a virus after reaching a threshold or a certain number of inoculated people.

Nearly 25 million Filipinos are on the initial priority list of the immunisation program that the government hopes to launch towards the end of the first quarter of 2021.

On top priority are frontline health workers in public and private facilities such as hospitals and quarantine shelters.

The other priority sectors include the poor elderly and the uniformed personnel such as the soldiers and police.

Meanwhile, Vergeire said the DOH has not detected any new strain of Covid-19 virus in the Philippines, adding that the Department would continue to monitor the health situation.