Community quarantines are here to stay, at least for the rest of the year.

Malacañang on Monday said it was unlikely for the Philippines to remove all community quarantine by the end of this year.

“Malabo pa iyan,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said in a virtual briefing.

The country’s health and government officials have been floating the possibility of the Philippines celebrating a “no-mask” Christmas this year.

Some 8.4 million Filipinos have been vaccinated so far.

According to independent vaccination tracker herdimmunity.ph, based on the country’s current vaccination rate, the country could achieve herd immunity by May 2023.

The Philippines is currently administering an average of 193,244 Covid-19 vaccine doses daily.

Its vaccination rate is expected to increase within the next two months, with the delivery of about four million Covid-19 vaccines in June and 11.67 million doses in July.

The country’s Covid-19 case tally sits at 1,364,239 as of June 21, with 1,284,643 recoveries and 23,749 fatalities. John Ezekiel J. Hirro