NOW that health authorities have established the efficacy of the various COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered nationwide through towns and cities, the government gained some measure of ascendancy over those who still think that these vaccines may be harmful and so they continue to keep away from them.
The issue now is not whether vaccines are effective against COVID-19, since the decreasing caseloads and coronavirus reproduction rate coupled with fewer people dying are clearly attributable to the science of vaccines.
Latest numbers provided by the Department of Health are encouraging: a total of 37,355,164 individuals – or 48.43 percent of the target population – have received at least one dose as of Nov. 4.
‘Everything humanly possible
is being done by the authorities
to push the national vaccination program, and Filipinos are best advised to support it, starting with those who are beneficiaries of the various social amelioration programs of the government.’
The government has also administered a total of 62,474,334 jabs nationwide, bringing the total of fully vaccinated individuals to 28,718,856 or 37.23 percent of the country’s target population.
The local pandemic situation is also seen as improving with the downgrading of Metro Manila’s alert level to 2, and the lifting of the ban on children from going out and riding in public utility vehicles.
Against this backdrop is the appeal by vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. to local officials to craft local ordinances to ensure people will get vaccines regardless of brands, a move which will make coronavirus disease immunization as mandatory.
Galvez correctly touts the “no vaccine preference” policy so that all the excess vaccines in the government’s stockpile will be utilized — and administered fast because there is the danger that these doses might reach their expiration dates. We note that out of the 110 million COVID-19 vaccines that have arrived since February, there are around 47 million doses in the government’s warehouses.
Everything humanly possible is being done by the authorities to push the national vaccination program, and Filipinos are best advised to support it, starting with those who are beneficiaries of the various social amelioration programs of the government.m
