Time to speed up vaccine rollout in provinces—Robredo


Vice President Leni Robredo has called on the government to hasten the vaccination rollout in the provinces amid the request of local government units (LGUs) for more vaccine doses against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Vice President Leni Robredo was present during the second-dose Vaccine Express run in Magalang, Pampanga on September 25, 2021. (OVP)

The vice president noted the concentration of COVID-19 cases is not just in Metro Manila, but in other provinces as well so the government must intensify its vaccination efforts in other parts of the country.

She cited many LGUs have expressed concern about the government’s slow pace of delivery of vaccines allotted to them.

"Para sa akin, kailangang bilis bilisan kasi andito na nga ang Delta variant (For me, we have to act faster because the Delta variant is here)," Robredo said in an interview in Magalang, Pampanga last weekend.

"Sana hanapan nila ng paraan kung saan iyong bottle neck kasi nasa kalagitnaan tayo ng pandemic (I hope they will find a way to address the bottle neck because we are in a middle of a pandemic)," she added.

Robredo brought her Vaccine Express program to the municipality for the inoculation of more than 2,000 essential workers.

The country’s vaccine stock received a boost with the arrival of some three million doses of Sinovac vaccine purchased by the national government on Sunday, September 26.

READ: 3M gov't-procured Sinovac jabs delivered; total supply nears 70 M

The Sinovac doses were immediately delivered to Pharmaserv Express’ cold-chain facility in Marikina City for temporary storage before they are packaged and brought to various local government units.

With the latest batch of Sinovac doses, the country has received 69,699,340 doses of various vaccine brands.

According to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, most of the vaccines will be distributed to Regions 4-A, 3, 6, 7, 11, 2, 1, and 9 while part of it will be used for second doses in Metro Manila.