PUBLIC enthusiasm on getting vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has dropped, Quirino Gov. Dakila Carlo Cua yesterday said in explaining the low demand for the vaccines in provinces.
Cua, who is the president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), said in a radio interview: “Many of our countrymen are no longer that bothered by COVID-19 and they are not that interested of our vaccines.”
Cua admitted vaccines distributed to local government units (LGUs) have already expired because of the failure of health workers to use them.
“That is one problem of our health workers…Sad to say, that is a common (concern) at present,” he said without saying how much vaccine doses have been wasted.
The Department of Health has said that some 31.3 million COVID-19 doses have been wasted due to expiration, short shelf life, natural disaster, temperature, discoloration and particulate or floating matters. The total vaccine wastage is 12.5 percent of the total 250.38 million doses of the country.
Cua said LGUs have been doing all they can to entice people to get inoculated, including holding raffles, games and even distribution of rice and food packs, but to no avail.
“Mayors and government have done almost everything…but they are not that receptive. Maybe, our countrymen have become complacent,” said Cua.
Before, Cua said, people wanted to be the first to get vaccinated against the disease. “But now, vaccine demand from our countrymen is low,” he said.
Meanwhile, the DOH yesterday said it is looking at purchasing bivalent vaccines in smaller numbers.
In a press conference, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they do not want to purchase newer generations of COVID-19 vaccines in large volumes at the risk of having wastage.
“We will procure doses now in smaller amounts to provide for the vulnerable population,” said Vergeire, adding: “Once we see that there is high demand for it, then we will just order another batch.”
Vergeire said they will base the numbers on the estimated demand for the bivalent vaccines.
Citing a survey they recently conducted, she said that 90 percent of those that have received booster shots, and 62 percent of those with the primary series have expressed interest in having the bivalent vaccines.
“We did that so we can estimate how many do we need to purchase,” she explained.
As to the suggestion of Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion to pre-register people willing to get the bivalent vaccine, Vergeire said they are not keen on adopting the idea because creating a master list prior to procurement would be highly tedious.
“That will essentially remove the right to get vaccinated those that decided a day before vaccination that they want to walk in the following day,” added Vergeire.
The DOH is already in negotiations with Pfizer and Moderna over the procurement of the bivalent vaccines against COVID-19. — With Gerard Naval
