Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Thursday said the government should act swiftly and boost the country’s plunging immunization rates, which has been disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recto said the Expanded Program of Immunization has a budget of P7.5-billion this year, to cover about 12 million individuals, from infants to seniors.

But as of end of June 2020, only 2.8 million individuals, not even one-fourth of the target, have been vaccinated.

“That is the sad halftime score. With communities locked down, schools closed, transportation disrupted, this essential national program is clearly a coronavirus casualty,” Recto said.

“And any catch-up program is hampered by the closure of where those who are to be vaccinated largely congregate – schools. Distance learning is possible, but online immunization is not,” he pointed out.

“But we can still rally from our national deficit through a massive information program. If there is one lesson that can be gleaned from successful mass vaccination drives, it is this: You have to inform before you can inject,” he added.

Recto said he hopes that both the Offices of the President and Vice President issue public service announcements (PSA) and promote this life-saving program.

This year’s immunization program also covers senior citizens, about 1.285 million of them slated to receive influenza and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23), he stressed.

“It is a public service announcement (PSA) that is also a public display of affection (PDA) for children and seniors. The need for high-profile endorsers is needed to arrest the plunge in vaccination levels,” he said.

Recto noted that long before the pandemic struck, the Philippine immunization compliance has been going down. So far, he said the scorecard this year points to a slippage that must be overcome.

“Of the 2.12 million children under one year of age who must receive the full array of vaccines, only 332,000 were fully immunized by the end of March this year, or a mere one in seven (7),” the lawmaker stressed.

Recto also noted that of the 8.6 million school children up for immunization, only 2.458 million have been vaccinated per latest data from the Department of health (DOH), or 3 out of 10.

“If there is one lesson that this pandemic has reaffirmed, it is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” the lawmaker emphasized.