Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. has bared the details of the proposed three-day “National Vaccination Day” against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) this November with an ultimate goal of inoculating at least 15 million individuals.
During President Duterte’s “Talk to the People” public address aired on Wednesday, Nov 10, Galvez said that the vaccination program will be dubbed as “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” and is tentatively set from Nov. 29 to December 1.
He said the three-day vaccination program could be declared as national holidays through the issuance of an executive order (EO) from the President or a department circular from the Department of Health (DOH) so that all the people can participate.
It is worthy to note that the program will coincide with Bonifacio Day, a non-working holiday, to commemorate the 158th birth anniversary of Filipino hero Andres Bonifacio on Nov. 30.
“It will be likened to an election day where all the people can go to the vaccination area. Like the election, they can go to the precincts. These are the people that are unvaccinated and those who will have their boosters. They can proceed to the designated vaccination areas,” Galvez said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The government targets to inoculate five million people per day during the three-day vaccination program.
Around 4,000 to 5,000 vaccination sites across all of the 17 regions in the country will be activated for the program while the rollout will be done simultaneously nationwide.
Galvez said all government agencies, local government units (LGUs), civil society organizations, and private sector partners will also be mobilized to participate in the vaccination day.
Meanwhile, healthcare workers from public and private hospitals, and volunteers from the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and their component societies in the regions and provinces will also be deployed to augment vaccinators in areas that need additional manpower.
As to the deployment of the vaccines, Galvez said assets from various government agencies will be used to transport the supplies down to the designated vaccination areas.
Among those that will be tapped include the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), and Department of Transportation (DOTr).
The national government will also seek the assistance of the private sector to deliver the vaccines to the intended vaccination sites.
Galvez said the national government will also intensify their information dissemination campaign to spread word about the planned vaccination day.
After the three-day vaccination day, the government will conduct “sustainment operations” from Dec. 2 to 31 to ensure that all LGUs will be able to meet their vaccination targets by the end of the year.
He said that during the sustainment operations, they will conduct assessment and evaluation of the program, improve the vaccination capacities of LGUs, and regenerate sources and personnel in priority areas to ensure the continuity of the immunization drive.
“We will not end up with the national vaccination day. We will sustain the effort up to December 31,” Galvez said.
The national government plans to fully vaccinate 50 million to 70 million individuals by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity.
So far, a total of 35,656,279 individuals have received their first dose while 30,108,097 have been fully vaccinated.