THE National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) reiterated the Philippine government’s commitment to vaccinate all qualified Filipinos against COVID-19 amid the challenges the country is facing.
In a statement, NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the strategies the government has implemented since March 2021 to carry out a massive vaccination rollout have proven to be effective not only in scaling up the vaccination capacities of local government units, but also in increasing vaccine acceptance among Filipinos.
The statement is a reaction to a recent report published by the World Bank’s Philippines office, which said that vaccination in the country “continued to lag regional peers.”
“Despite our slow start due to limited global vaccine supplies last year, our vaccination program gradually gained momentum as the daily inoculation rate rose from just a couple of thousand doses, to hundreds of thousands of shots, and currently, to millions of jabs as the vaccine shipments started to arrive in bulk in the third quarter of last year,” Galvez continued.
The World Bank on Wednesday, January 19, 2022, published a report saying that “the slower vaccination and higher mobility during the holiday season are the likely causes why the Philippines is one of the first to experience an Omicron variant surge in the region, recording higher cases per capita than other ASEAN countries, as of Jan. 11.”
He said they were able to meet and sustain the target of administering more than a million vaccine doses daily, which continued until December. He noted, however, several external factors that limited the country’s ability to maximize such partnerships and slowed down vaccination efforts.
Among those were typhoon Odette in December that struck six regions in the country, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao, all of which were starting to ramp up their vaccination throughput. Due to the typhoon, LGUs were forced to temporarily suspend their vaccination rollout in order to respond to the immediate needs of their constituents such as food, medicine, and shelters.
Moreover, Galvez pointed to the upcoming elections that diverted the attention of some local chief executives from the efficient implementation of their vaccination drive, which Galvez said is the more important task at hand. “It is our hope that our local leaders will have the will to temporarily set aside their personal interests and first ensure the health and protection of their constituents, especially now that the country is experiencing another major surge.”
He also said that LGUs situated in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAs) must also contend with the constant threat of the Communist Terrorist Group (CTG). “The CTG has been a major cause of concern among our LGUs whose inoculation efforts have been largely affected whenever there is an attack on communities.”
Galvez likewise noted that other factors affecting a nation’s vaccination program vary from country to country. He said that many of the country’s neighbors in the region do not share the same challenges that the Philippines has, such as being an archipelago of around 7,640 islands wherein delivering the vaccines to far-flung communities can be a major logistical challenge, or being frequently hit by typhoons which leave behind a swath of destruction in their aftermath.
And as pointed out by the World Bank in its report, the increase in mobility among various age groups during the holiday season may have largely contributed to the current surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant particularly in the National Capital Region.
And although increased mobility during the holiday season may be a large contributor to the surge in cases driven by Omicron, there is a need to understand that a balance should be created between protecting the people’s health and breathing life into the nation’s economy. “The country’s business sector could no longer be held hostage by the health crisis, and therefore the need to further open up the economy, while putting in place all the necessary health and safety precautions.”
Galvez said it can be recalled that the country registered very low COVID-19 caseloads and positivity rates throughout December, a trend which started in the third quarter when vaccination rates significantly increased due to steadier and bigger vaccine deliveries. He reiterated that the country “has already learned its lessons from previous surges such as the one caused by the Delta variant. The country’s health care system is now more prepared and better equipped to respond to such surges.”
He pointed to the “Resbakuna sa Botika” program, where the government partnered with leading drug store chains and clinics and health clinics so that they can help in the administration of COVID-19 booster doses to all qualified members of the adult population.
Galvez said the effort was based on the recommendation of medical experts. As more than 56.4 million Filipinos are now fully vaccinated, many are now qualified to receive booster shots so there is a need to increase the number of vaccination centers – both public and private – and employ more vaccinators.
“With this new program and the concerted effort among all sectors of society, we are confident that we will be able to achieve our goal of fully inoculating 77 million Filipinos within this quarter and administer booster shots to more than 72 million of our countrymen,” Galvez said.