Filipinos can still celebrate a "better" Christmas season this year despite the worrisome surge of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases which are seen to be caused by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19, made the assurance in a statement Saturday night, Aug. 14, as he underscored the importance of the ramped up vaccination program in the country, particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR) where most of the new infections were recorded.
"Our goal of having a better Christmas is still attainable. Maraming areas na mabibilis magbakuna and with the continuous deliveries of our vaccine supplies, kayang-kaya natin ma-achieve yung minimithi natin sa NCR and other areas na magkaroon ng better Christmas sa December (There are many areas with quick vaccination systems and with the continuous deliveries of our vaccine supplies, we can achieve our target of having a beter Christmas in NCR and other areas by December)," he said.
Back in June, Malacanang floated the idea of having a "mask-less" Christmas but the idea seemed to be far-fetched at least for now as record-high cases are being recorded by the Department of Health (DOH).
On Saturday, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded the second highest daily case count with 14,249 new infections. The highest single-day tally was recorded last April 2 with 15,310 new cases.
The national government is eyeing to inoculate around 77 million Filipinos, or 70 percent of 111 million total population, by the end of the year to attain herd immunity.
Herd immunity is described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a form of indirect protection when a sufficient percentage of the population becomes immune to an infectious disease.
But in NCR, herd immunity is seen to be achieved as early as September due to the scaled up vaccine rollout in many local government units (LGUs), Galvez said.
According to the vaccine czar, the government is maximizing the current enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) status of NCR to escalate the tempo of vaccination and administer at least 250,000 jabs daily.
At present, around 220,000 doses are being administered daily in NCR.
Galvez said the NTF has so far deployed 3.5 million doses this month to NCR to respond to the region's request of four million-dose allocation during the ECQ period, which will last until Aug. 20.
He said the NTF plans to increase NCR's allocation to six million doses to fully vaccinate 50 percent of the region’s residents before the end of August.
More than 9.6 million of NCR's residents are eligible for vaccination. Currently, 41 percent of them were already fully vaccinated while 62 percent have received their first dose.
"The 50 percent of NCR's population is a very significant threshold dahil kapag nabakuhan natin sila, may tendency na mag-plateau o bumaba ‘yung mga kaso (if we are able to vaccinate them, there is a tendency that the cases will plateau or decrease)," Galvez explained.
More than 1.7 million COVID-19 cases have already been recorded by the DOH in the country.
Meanwhile, over 12 million Filipinos have already been fully vaccinated while 14 million others have received their first dose.