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Robredo hopes for shift of vaccination drive to provinces due to COVID-19 surge
Robredo hopes for shift of vaccination drive to provinces due to COVID-19 surge
Vice President Leni Robredo wants the government to start shifting its vaccination drive to the provinces by sending more COVID-19 vaccine doses there because of the rising cases outside the National Capital Region Plus (NCR Plus) bubble.
“Sana mas nagpapadala na rin sa mga probinsiya, kasi for a time kinoncentrate talaga sa Manila, ‘di ba. With reason, kasi mataas iyong cases dito, pero maraming mga probinsiya pataas na rin iyong cases ngayon (I hope we can send more to the provinces, because for a time we concentrated in Manila, right. With reason, because the cases are higher here, but many provinces have a high number of cases as well),” she said over dzXL.
The health workers, senior citizens, and barangay health workers in the provinces, at least, should already be vaccinated, the vice president stressed.
In her home province of Camarines Sur, Robredo noted that a lot of Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) have not been vaccinated yet although they do the brunt of work in helping COVID-19 positive cases in their barangays.
Metro Manila and CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) have the most number of cases at 497,000 and 205,000, respectively. Central Luzon and Central Visayas came in at third and fourth with 99,949 and 62,395, respectively.
Robredo’s office has been doing what it can to extend its pandemic response programs to the provinces. In particular, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) sent a team to Puerto Princesa to bring COVID-19 Care Kits in the city.
READ: https://mb.com.ph/2021/05/26/robredo-brings-ovps-covid-19-response-programs-to-palawan/
Meanwhile, she is optimistic of the government’s vaccine rollout lately because of the number of individuals being administered with the vaccine daily.
“Marami-rami na rin iyong nababakunahan daily, so ka pag naayos lang iyong schedule, naayos lang iyong deployment, tingin ko kaya naman ubusin before the end of June (The number of people getting vaccinated daily is improving, so if they keep with the schedule, if the deployment is better, I think they can use it all by before the end of June),” Robredo said, referring to the more than 1.3 million AstraZeneca doses that are due to expire by the end of June.
Another 500,000 AstraZeneca jabs will expire before the end of July.
“Pero tinitignan ko kasi nag-improve na rin e, nag-improve na iyong vaccine numbers natin (But I think our numbers are improving, our vaccine numbers are improving),” she said.
The lady official praised local government units (LGUs) that have rolled out their vaccination programs well so far.
“Iyong pinakamahalaga naman maayos iyong rollout. So marami namang mga LGUs ang maayos iyong rollout e. Maraming mga LGUs ang walang problema (The most important is the efficiency of the rollout. So, a lot of LGUs are efficient in their rollout. Many LGUs don’t have problems),” Robredo added.