EXPECT more Filipinos to die due to COVID-19 infections, says President Rodrigo Duterte amid what he claimed as a hard time securing vaccines capable of stopping the surge.
In a pre-recorded message, Duterte said the country’s current stock of 3.025 million COVID-19 shots were “barely enough to inoculate the health workers.”
“Hanggang ngayon the word ‘unavailable’ is nandiyan, unavailable because there are not–there’s no sufficient supply to inoculate the world. Matagal pa ito. Sabihin ko sa iyo marami pang mamamatay dito. Hindi ko lang maturo kung sino,” an exasperated President Duterte averred.
He also blamed countries which were able to develop vaccines adding that they “are not ready really to let go of their stocks of vaccines. When will having that stock be sufficient to vaccinate the people? I really do not know. Nobody knows,” added Duterte, who insisted that the government has not been remiss in its COVID-19 response.
“Hindi tayo nagkulang,” he further said.
The Philippines aims to vaccinate 70 million people this year, but has only managed to inoculate 1.2 million Filipinos.
The country has been recording an average of 10,000 fresh cases of infections on a daily basis.