TAKING cue from the standpoint of Health Secretary Francisco Duque, mobile vaccination in slum areas is not an option, says presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who hinted on the need for local folks to seek jabs at the government-designated vaccination centers.
In a televised press briefing, Roque categorically labeled the idea of deploying mobile vaccine centers as not feasible.
“We have different vaccination centers that would be picked by local government units. And these vaccination centers won’t be far away from slum areas,” said Roque, who cited the need for the government to monitor the vaccine recipients after taking the shots.
“What’s important is recipients would be monitored in vaccination sites after they received the jabs since these are near to the hospitals and ambulances on standby,” the Palace spokesperson added.
Interestingly, Roque’s statement runs counter to what President Rodrigo Duterte has uttered in a directive addressed to the Department of Health (DOH), which the latter ordered to set up “mobile” vaccination in slum areas.
Duterte underscored what he aptly referred to as vaccine accessibility to the poor, particularly beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps.
“We’re thinking of going mobile. You go there or if you are near the barangay, you just wait because my order now is for the team to give you the vaccine while traveling. We have lots of vehicles. We will use all government assets,” Duterte was quoted as saying in his weekly public address last Monday.
Duque earlier said that the president’s idea is not doable, citing logistical challenges. He said that mobile vaccination may not be able to monitor and respond to any serious side effects that patients may suffer following the injection.
“A problem I can see now is that if we bring the vaccines there, we will need a lot of people to monitor for adverse effects following immunization,” Duque said.
To date, some 216,724 Filipinos, representing 11 percent of the country’s 1.7 million healthcare workers, have been administered shots of the donated COVID-19 vaccines facilitated by the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility.