LOCAL government units (LGUs) deemed slow in vaccinating their constituents risk delays in the delivery of their additional additional vaccine supply, the Department of Health said yesterday.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH wants the LGUs to “level up their immunization program before they get their additional allocation.”
“We are already looking at the performances of LGUs before we give them additional allocation. This is to incentivize the LGUs for them to perform better,” she said in a briefing.
Vergeire, however, said there are other factors that could slow down the vaccination process, like vaccine hesitancy as shown in an online survey conducted by the DOH, involving some 43,000 respondents.
“Survey shows people are hesitant to be vaccinated,” she said.
Vergeire said among reasons people hesitate to get vaccinated are concerns about adverse events following immunization, negative vaccine information on social media, and uncertainty surrounding a vaccine’s efficacy against COVID-19.
As of May 30, about 5.2 vaccine doses have been administered, including almost 4 million first doses.
“The average daily administered doses in the last seven days is 144,402,” the DOH said.
Among the priority group A1 (healthcare workers), some 1.4 million have been given first doses, 1.4 million from the priority group A2 (senior citizens), 1.8 million from group A3 (persons with comorbidities), and 10,827 for frontliners in essential sectors (priority group A4).
Vergeire said the start of the inoculation of those under the A4 group is still uncertain because the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has yet to issue guidelines on vaccinating the group.
Around 35 million people nationwide are expected to be vaccinated under the A4 category.
The government targets the vaccination of 50 million to 70 million Filipinos by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity, and targets to inoculate 70 percent of the adult population in the NCR+8 by November 27.
US DONATION
The United States is expected to announce this week the distribution of the first batch of vaccine surplus that it will donate to various countries, including the Philippines, “without strings attached,” Ambassador to Washington, Jose Manuel Romualdez said.
Romualdez, in a pre-taped briefing with presidential spokesman Harry Roque, said he has been informed that President Joe Biden will announce this week the distribution of the first batch of the 80 million vaccines. He said he does not have the specifics as to how many vaccines will be allocated to the Philippines and when it will be delivered.
“It’s just really part of the program they have in helping other nations to be able to fight this virus,” he said.
Biden earlier said the US will donate 80 million vaccines, mostly made by AstraZeneca that have been manufactured in the US, to other countries in the next six weeks.
A shipment of 50,000 doses of Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines arrived in the country on Sunday night, and these are expected to be deployed mostly in areas with high COVID cases, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said.
The NTF, in a Facebook post, said the vaccines from Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute were transported to the PharmaServ Warehouse in Marikina City for storage.
“They (vaccines) will be deployed in ‘centers of gravity’ or areas throughout the country that are experiencing surges in COVID-19 cases,” the NTF said.
The country has received a total of 80,000 Sputnik V doses and is buying 20 million doses from Gamaleya.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the country is expecting the delivery of some 3.4 million doses this month — 1 million doses from China’s Sinovac, 2.2 million doses from Pfizer under the COVAX Facility, and 200,000 doses from Moderna.
HERD IMMUNITY
Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, a former health secretary, said attaining herd immunity will require some time even after majority of Filipinos have received COVID-19 vaccines so that targeted mass testing and isolation of suspected infected individuals must continue.
She said mass testing and isolation remain the only ways for health professionals to track the movement and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“Let me reiterate that the impact of vaccination is not immediate and we can’t just wait for herd immunity,” Garin said. “We are certainly aiming for herd immunity, but we must see to it that we lessen mutations and further infections through testing so we can immediately isolate those who will be found positive.”
Even as health authorities step up the vaccination program, Garin said the main strategy in containing COVID-19 is detecting infected individuals and keeping them away from the rest of the population.
However, she noted that since the start of the pandemic, the same twin problems persist: most people would rather avoid being tested since it would mean being put in quarantine, taking away their opportunity to provide for their families.
Garin said the only solution is to offer free testing and provide P10,000 compensation for COVID-19 patients upon completing their isolation.
“Patuloy na kumakalat and COVID-19 dahil marami ang ayaw mag pa-isolate dahil walang makain ang pamilya. If we don’t isolate, COVID-19 is just happily hopping and multiplying fast,” she said.
Free testing, she said, would help the government identify “silent spreaders” who are unknowingly infecting other people within the community.
However, COVID-19 tests in the country remain expensive, hobbling the government war against the virus that is continuously and rapidly increasing, replicating and mutating.
“We need to quantitatively lessen the number of enemies while we increase our soldiers (antibodies) and wait for them to effectively mature to carry a fight. That’s four weeks after the last dose,” she said. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Peter Tabingo
