There was a lot of “wasted opportunity” that the government could have taken advantage of before the supply of coronavirus vaccines arrived in the country, Vice President Leni Robredo said on Sunday, April 18, as she highlighted its inability to use up its meager vaccine supply.
(Jansen Romero / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
On her weekly radio show with broadcaster Ely Saludar, Robredo lamented the problems faced by the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program even though there are only two million doses of the vaccines available now.
“Maraming wasted opportunity na dumaan na iyong October to December. Alam na nating dadating ‘yung bakuna parang hindi pa din natin napaghandaan nang maayos (We have a lot of wasted opportunity that October to December passed. We already know that the vaccines will arrive but we were not able to prepare for it),” Robredo said.
“Two million-plus pa lang ‘yung dumating hindi pa din natin nauubos (Only two million-plus arrived but we can’t even consume it) after almost two months,” she added.
If this is the phase of the country’s vaccination program, the vice president noted that it will be hard to reach herd immunity by December this year.
“So sa akin, Ka Ely, kung konti pa nga lang ‘yung bakuna nagkakaproblema na tayo sa numero, nagkakaproblema na tayo sa proseso, lalo na kung dumagsa na iyong bakuna (So for me, Ka Ely, we only have less vaccines, we’re already having problem with the numbers, we’re having problems with the process, more so when more vaccines start to arrive),” Robredo said.
The country received donations of Chinese-made Sinovac directly from Beijing and doses of the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) vaccine-sharing facility, COVAX. It also purchased some one million doses of Sinovac in late March.
Back in mid-March, the vice president said that the Philippines has to inoculate 200,000 individuals per day to reach herd immunity by yearend.
Herd immunity happens when the virus can’t spread in a community because it keeps on encountering people who are protected against the virus. It is estimated that the Philippines needs to inoculate some 75 percent to 80 percent of the population before herd immunity can be achieved.
Problems that beset the country’s vaccination program include low vaccine confidence and confusion in the registration process.
“Meron tayong problema sa speed (We have a problem with the speed),” Robredo said of the program.
The lady official noted that a lot of local government units (LGUs) are using online registration, but not everyone knows to follow this method.
Instead, Robredo suggested allotting only a certain number of COVID-19 vaccines for online registration while Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) can go house-to-house to persuade communities to get inoculated.
She remembered that she already held a meeting with the Department of Health (DOH) back in November last year. She suggested for the department to come up with a master list of names to avoid cutting of lines and to follow the prioritization list.
“The prioritization will not be followed because the attitude of others is if they know someone, they will cut the vaccine line,” Robredo said in Filipino.
The opposition leader also noted that she has been receiving reports wherein hospitals could not even use up all their allocated vaccines because people are refusing to get vaccinated.