The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) stressed Wednesday that measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are being strictly enforced by the government.
In an interview, DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III emphasized this after the administration’s critics chided the government for its supposed ineptness in dealing with the country’s pandemic woes.
“The containment strategies and preparation of the availability of healthcare facilities have been done,’’ Densing said.
Densing also noted that “there is no evidence yet of an actual surge (of COVID-19) as claimed by some critics."
However, Densing said the government remains up on its toes as authorities expect the numbers (of COVID-19 cases) “to go up by the second week of January due to the holidays where many people went out.’’
With the government’s efforts, Densing noted “hopefully, still, that the numbers will not go up as we expect it to happen.’’
With some having second thoughts of being vaccinated, Densing assured that health authorities will strictly scrutinize and assess the best vaccine that will be made available to the country.
“We just have to wait for the results of the clinical trials and eventually which (COVID-190 vaccine will be given accreditation,’’ he added.
In an ABS-CBN report, it noted that the Philippines targets to vaccinate some 50 to 70 million Filipinos from the COVID-19 this year.
It noted that the government is currently in the midst of negotiations for the purchase of as much as 148 million doses.
COVID-19 policy chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said in a virtual meeting yesterday that advanced stages of negotiations are now ongoing with Novovax, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac and Gamaleya.
The government hopes to close the deal with the said companies this month.