After the success of the “National Vaccination Days’’ activity, local government units (LGUs) will now have to deal with the Herculean task of encoding all the data due to the massive turnout of individuals who got the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) jabs.

In a news briefing on Friday, Dec. 3, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the vaccination output in the “Bayanihan, Bakunahan’’ program was more than twice compared to the regular inoculation days.

Around 2.4 million to 2.7 million doses were administered daily in the three-day immunization program which was held from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1. During regular vaccination days, the country is averaging around one million in administered doses.

“Ganoon din po kadami ang kailangan i-encode ng ating mga LGUs. So marami rami po silang ineencode ngayon at nagpapasalamat po ang DILG sa tulong ng ating mga volunteers galing sa mga SK (Sangguniang Kabataan), yung government intership ng DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) at iba pa pong mga tao na nagvolunteer para tulungan ang mga LGUs para maencode itong mga datos na ito (That is the same number that needs to be encoded by the LGUs. So they are encoding a lot right now and the DILG is thankful to the assistance of the volunteers from the SK, those from the DOLE internship program, and other volunteers that helped the LGUs to encode the data),’’ Malaya said.

The predicament prompted Malaya to appeal to the concerned parties to provide appropriate resources and personnel to cope up with the shortage of personnel, and to increase the Vaxcert (vaccine certification) portal and VaxCert.ph digital certification.

Earlier, the DILG spokesperson emphasized the need for the LGUs to expedite their vaccination data’s encoding process so that they will be included in the government’s VaxCert.ph digital certification.

Malaya noted that the LGUs were able to inoculate 7.628 million qualified individuals in the last three days of the “National Vaccination Days’’.

Among the top performing regions are Region 4-A, Region 3 and Region 7 whilw top performing provinces include Cavite, Laguna, and Cebu.

Vaccine wastage

Meanwhile, Malaya admitted that the DILG have received reports about vaccine wastage in some LGUs but he said the Department of Health (DOH) will be the one to issue recommendations whether or not to hold them liable.

At present, Malaya confirmed that the DOH and National Vaccines Operation Center (NVOC) are currently validating the explanations of the LGUs to determine if they were negligent that led to the spoilage of the COVID-19 vaccines.

“Hihintayin po namin iyong (We will wait for the) report and recommendation coming from the DOH kasi ang DOH po kasi ang nagbigay ng bakuna sa kanila at ang DOH ang nagsusupervise ng ating vaccination program sa mga LGUs (because the DOH was the one that distributed the vaccines to them and DOH is the one supervising the vaccination program of the LGUs),’’ Malaya explained.