PRESIDENT Duterte appeared to have backtracked on his earlier strong stance on unvaccinated individuals and now says it is all right if Filipinos refused to be vaccinated even as government continues to urge everyone to get a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The President, in his weekly “Talk to the People” address late Monday, said the government, “ideally,” can insist that people get vaccinated but it cannot arrest them if they go out of their houses because “this is a democracy.”
“Kayong mga ayaw magpabakuna, okay lang sa akin. Ganito ‘yan eh, ideally talagang… pilitin ng gobyerno, but this is a democracy. We cannot arrest you if you go out or I cannot enforce totally a rule na huwag kayong… (Those who refused to be vaccinated, it’s okay with me. It’s like this, ideally… government would force you, but this is a democracy. We cannot arrest you if you go out or I cannot enforce a rule that you should not be …),” he said.
Duterte, in previous speeches, said he would ask the police and barangay officials to escort unvaccinated people back to their homes. He also threatened to arrest those who refused to be vaccinated and ordered his officials to look for laws that can be used to charge unvaccinated persons. He has also told unvaccinated persons to leave the country or he would inject them with an anti-parasitic drug used on animals.
The President said he would continue to encourage the public to be vaccinated as he said the COVID-19 virus is here to stay.
He said Filipinos should get vaccinated at the first opportunity they get as “it might save your life.”
“Ang buhay, panahon-panahon mamatay. Pero kung may bakuna ka, baka, baka abutin ka pa sa katandaan (In life, your time will come to die. But if you have a vaccine, maybe, maybe you will reach old age),” he said.
As of August 16, the government has administered 28.3 million doses of vaccines with 12.74 million fully vaccinated out of the targeted 50 million to 70 million Filipinos.
6M VACCINES THIS WEEK
National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. reported to the President that six million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in the country this week — four million doses of Sinovac and 400,000 to 500,000 doses of Moderna procured by government, 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca bought by the government and private sector, and one million doses of Sinopharm donated by the Chinese government.
He said the Sinovac vaccines are to be delivered on August 19 and 20, AstraZeneca on August 20, and Sinopharm on August 21. The arrival date of the Moderna jabs has yet to be finalized.
Galvez said the NTF recently asked the United States Embassy to fast track the delivery of the procured Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson (J&J) jabs. A combined eight million doses are still expected from these vaccine brands in the fourth week of August.
He said the vaccination program slowed down in the first two weeks of the month due to the re-imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila and other areas, and the continuing surge of cases.
He said vaccine allocation will be ramped increased in Metro Manila and areas in the Davao, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Bicol, Cordillera, and Caraga regions, among others.
He said the country has received some 42.6 million doses from various vaccine manufacturers since February this year.
PH TO BUY MORE VACCINES
President Duterte said he told the United States the Philippines has funds to buy its excess vaccines.
“I am just asking America to give us more kung mayroon lang sila… if there is an excess of supply sa inyo, pakitulong naman dito sa bayan ko. We have the money, we buy, we do not ask. We have saved money for this event (I am just asking America to give us more, if they have it… If there is an excess of supply, please help my country. We have the money. We buy, we don’t ask. We saved money for this event),” he said.
The US government donated 3.2 million doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the Philippines and three million doses of Moderna’s vaccine through the COVAX Facility.
Duterte reiterated there were no strings attached to the vaccine donations made by China.
“Until now, walang hiningi iyang China sa akin maski ball pen. Walang pinakiusap, wala lahat. Except that their boats are there, at sabi ko naman, sinabi ko na ako rin sabi ko maglagay ako (Until now, China has not asked for anything, from me not even a pen. No requests, none. Except that their boats are there, and I said, I will also put out boats there),” he said referring to disputed areas in the South China Sea.
Duterte said he made the promise to match the boats of China in the disputed areas about a to two months ago.
He reiterated that he has no plans to go to war with China or any country but he would not order the Philippine ships to leave the West Philippine Sea as long as the Chinese vessels are there.
China has donated one million Sinovac doses to the country and is set to send one million more doses of Sinopharm this week. China initially donated 1,000 doses of Sinopharm in April, which included the vaccines administered on Duterte in May.
‘A2 PLUS 1’
The Department of Health expressed approval to a strategy that will allow companions of senior citizens to get inoculated along with the elderly.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said he “A2 Plus 1” strategy will be introduced by the government’s vaccine cluster.
“It’s an operational strategy that seeks to encourage the elderly to get vaccinated. If they have their caregiver or child with them, they will be more enticed to get jabbed,” she said.
“The elderly may already bring along their caregiver, household service worker, child, nephew, or anyone from their household so that they will be encouraged to get vaccinated and our numbers will increase,” she added.
Vergeire said it has been determined that having a family member inoculated increases the vaccine confidence of senior citizens.
She also said the DOH does not need to issue guidelines for the vaccination scheme. “The vaccine cluster will just issue an official advisory.”
Based on the latest national vaccination statistics, there are some 3.7 million senior citizens (Priority Group A2) who are fully vaccinated, while 747,573 are partially inoculated.
Overall, the DOH said, at least 2.6 million individuals have been fully vaccinated, and about 6.1 million have received the first dose.
For the A1 priority group or the healthcare workers, about 1.9 million are fully vaccinated and 515,070 partially vaccinated.
For persons with comorbidities (Priority Group A3), about 4.73 million are fully vaccinated and 1.6 million partially vaccinated. — With Gerard Naval.
