THE second phase of the “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” national vaccination program kicked off yesterday in six regions in Luzon as government doubled its efforts to reach the target of fully vaccinating 54 million individuals by the end of the year.
The program was scaled down because of typhoon “Odette” which is expected to hit areas in the Visayas and Mindanao and make landfall today in the Caraga or Eastern Visayas regions.
The second phase Bayanihan is being held in the National Capital Region (NCR), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Ilocos Region (Region I), Cagayan Valley (Region II), Central Luzon (Region III), Calabarzon (Region IV-A). It will be held in the Mimaropa and Bicol regions as well as in the Visayas and Mindanao from December 20 to 22.
Officials, at Bakunahan ceremony in Cabanatuan City, encouraged the public to have themselves or get booster shots amid the threat of Omicron, the new variant of COVID-19.
Among those present were Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, National Task Force against coronavirus (NTF COVID-19) chief Carlito Galvez Jr., NTF deputy implementer Vince Dizon, and World Health Organization Representative to the Philippines Dr Rabindra Abeyasinghe.
Abeyasinghe said vaccines will help keep COVID-19 transmission low, prevent overwhelming hospitals, and keep people from dying.
The WHO in Geneva yesterday said preliminary evidence indicates that COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective against infection and transmission linked to Omicron which also carries a higher risk of reinfection.
The WHO, in its weekly epidemiological update, said more data is needed to better understand the extent to which Omicron may evade immunity derived from either vaccines or previous infection.
“As a result of this, the overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high,” it said.
Duque said the government’s target of fully vaccinating 54 million people by the end of the year, 70 million to 77 million by the end of first quarter of 2022, and 90 million to 99 million by the end of the second quarter of 2022, still stands.
He said apart from the Bakunahan, continuous vaccination operations are being done around the country.
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje expressed confidence the country will meet the targeted 7 million vaccinees during Phase 2 but the DOH will no longer “do daily targeting because of the problem in reporting.”
“We will just total the output after the December 22,” she added,
During Phase 1, the government has administered 9.9 million doses.
Asked about a Phase 3, Cabotaje said “most likely,” Phase 2 will just be extended.
Cabotaje said the DOH is seeing more vaccination sites accommodating walk-ins, compared to the first phase.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said more vaccinators have been deployed in areas with low vaccine coverage.
“We were able to identify areas with the lowest coverage among the unvaccinated vulnerable individuals. We deployed more teams in those areas to intensify our vaccination efforts,” said Vergeire.
BOOSTERS
Duque, in an online forum, said the Vaccine Expert Panel is looking into a proposal to cut by half the current six-month interval between the second dose and booster shots.
“There seems to be a growing body of evidence that it will be beneficial if we advance the booster of people, who have the primary series (of vaccines),” he said.
Under DOH guidelines, those who got Pfizer, Moderna, Sinovac, Sputnik V, and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines may get their booster or additional shots at least six months after completion of the primary dose series.
Those who received Janssen as primary vaccine may get booster or additional shots at least three months after.
The government has administered some 98.02 million vaccine doses nationwide as of December 15 with some 42 million now fully vaccinated, 55.16 million have received the first dose, and 853,50000 got booster shots.
The NTF said as of December 14, the country has received 166.851 million doses of vaccines.
A shipment of 3.055 million doses of Janssen vaccines donated by the Dutch government arrived yesterday, together with 856,800 doses of Moderna vaccines donated by Germany and 214,500 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the UK, bringing the total delivered to about 171 million doses. — With Gerard Naval
