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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DOH: 84K Filipinos vaccinated vs COVID-19

DOH: 84K Filipinos vaccinated vs COVID-19

Published Mar 11, 2021 02:20 pm

The Philippines has so far vaccinated about 84,000 individuals against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), said Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday, March 11.

(JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN)

“We have vaccinated about 83,000 to 84,000 individuals. Of course the first week, I will admit, the vaccination rate was not as quick as we wanted it,” said Duque during his visit at the Delos Santos Medical Center in Quezon City.

“For obvious reasons, siyempre nag-uumpisa palang. Meron pong option makapili ang mga babakunahang healthcare workers kung ayaw po nila ng Sinovac, binigyan po natin sila ng right of refusal, at yung AstraZeneca ibibigay para doon sa mga tumanggi. Hindi po sila nawala sa prioritization (For obvious reasons, of course it is just starting. The healthcare workers have the option to choose if they do not want to receive the Sinovac, we have given them the right of refusal, and AstraZeneca will be given to those who refuse. They did not lose their priority status),” he added.

Duque said that about 3.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were needed to inoculate the entire healthcare workers in the country.

“We have only been able to receive 1,125,000, equivalent roughly to 30 percent for healthcare workers only. If you divide this by the overall vaccine requirement for the whole country of 140 million people, that’s less than one percent,” said the Health chief.

Duque appealed to the public to strictly adhere to the minimum health standards even if the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program already started.

“Huwag po tayo aasa na sa bakunang ito ay mapabababa natin ang kaso. Ang magpapababa ng kaso yung minimum public health standards pa rin (Let's not expect that with these vaccines we can lower our new cases, it is still the minimum public health standards)…November to January we kept the numbers very manageable to a level that it did not overwhelm the healthcare system,” he said.

“The journey towards herd immunity is going to be long, especially because the supply shortage has been a perennial problem for low to middle income countries like the Philippines,” he added.

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