Robredo calls for faster rollout of coronavirus vaccines
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday called for a faster rollout of coronavirus vaccines, saying that the government’s goal of immunizing up to 80% of the population should come sooner than its current 2023 target.
“Our goal should be better than 2023,” Robredo said partly in Filipino in a video message which premiered on her Facebook page. “That is worrying because as of now, a lot of Filipinos are suffering, a lot have lost their jobs.”
Robredo said achieving herd immunity as soon as possible would be the key to quickly revive the economy, which tanked to its lowest on record in 2020.
Herd immunity is the point where a disease can no longer cause massive outbreaks as enough people are already immune to it either by contracting it naturally or through vaccination.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Monday in a media briefing that the government hopes to achieve herd immunity by 2023, but added that it is possible for the country to reach that threshold earlier.
Officials shepherding the country’s vaccine plans have said that the government would be able to give shots to 50 to 70 million Filipinos in this year alone.
But this largely depends on the global supply of the coveted jabs — 80% of which have already been procured by other countries.
The Philippines is among Southeast Asia’s laggards in terms of coronavirus vaccinations, with the jabs that President Rodrigo Duterte touted as the only way to end the outbreak still yet to arrive, although officials have hinted that an initial batch of 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech shots obtained through the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility would reach the country over the weekend.
Once the jabs do arrive, the government would commence its vaccination drive against the coronavirus, with health workers from the country’s main COVID-19 referral centers, local government hospitals and five private medical centers in Metro Manila as well as other health department-designated hospitals being the first ones to get the shots.
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