The national government has vowed to appropriate a more balanced coronavirus disease-2019 ((COVID-19) vaccine distribution to the local government units (LGUs) as the country targets to achieve herd immunity, Quirino Governor Dakila Cua disclosed on Tuesday, Sept. 28.
Previously, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 and the Department of Health (DOH) had targeted the vaccination policy on hotspot localities where there are surges and high COVID-19 cases.
Cua who also heads the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), noted “equitable talaga ang gagawin nilang (national government) distribution para nga po makahabol naman ang the rest of the country doon sa ating hinahabol na herd immunity (the distribution will be done in an equitable way to make the rest of the country reach herd immunity).’’
The NTF earlier noted that the national inoculation effort could reach up to 50 to 60 percent of the target population by December with the supply of COVID-19 vaccines to the provinces.
Cua recognized that the provinces with storage facilities are provided with more COVID-19 vaccines, particularly those sensitive brands like Pfizer and Moderna citing that this had caused a ‘bottleneck’.
As of September 22, the NTF reported that 19,376,832 or 25.12 percent of the country’s target population had been fully vaccinated.
Cua also has strongly pushed for the national government to permit the provincial LGUs to purchase the COVID-19 vaccines from the manufacturers with some of them transacting with the national government. (Chito A. Chavez)