Malacañang welcomed the recent study showing that the majority of Filipinos have access to coronavirus vaccination sites but said that there were more things that needed to be accomplished in the country's fight against the pandemic.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after the Second Quarter 2021 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that 68 percent of Filipinos have easy access to vaccination sites in their area.
In a statement on August 18, Wednesday, Roque lauded key players in the country's vaccination program for being able to cover "a great majority" of the population.
" is a result of the combined hard work of the departments in the Executive, the local government units (LGUs), and major stakeholders, including key private sector leaders who contributed in our national vaccination program," he said.
However, the Palace official admitted that more needed to be done. The same SWS survey showed that there were still areas that still have no access to a vaccination site and/or have a slow pace of vaccination.
"To improve access to and pace of vaccination, we are addressing vaccine supplies by procuring more vaccines, increasing personnel or vaccinators by considering pharmacists and medical interns/underboard, and having barangay health centers as vaccination sites," he said.
Roque added that the government undertaking different initiatives with its partnership with LGUs and the private sector to reach more people. These efforts included having malls as vaccination sites, drive-thru vaccination, 24-hour vaccinations, and house-to-house inoculation for the elderly and vulnerable people.
"Rest assured that we will not rest until we achieve population protection, for no one is safe, as the President underscored, until all of us are safe," he said.
The government rolled out its vaccination program against COVID-19 on March 1, 2021
As of August 16, the country has administered 28,308,493 COVID-19 vaccine doses with 12,743,082 individuals receiving a second shot.