Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagaoso said he re-allowed walk-ins in the city’s vaccination sites because the scheduling system turned out to be a failure.

In an interview with CNN Philippines on Tuesday, Domagoso said he only re-implemented the scheduling system upon the request of some residents who complained of long lines.

The no walk-in policy was implemented in the city on Monday (June 21), but due to a low turnout of vaccinees, Domagoso lifted the policy at 4:30 p.m.

Domagoso said the scheduling system “failed” because most of those who are scheduled to be vaccinated on a certain day are not able to go to the sites for various reasons like the need to report for work or being sick.

The mayor said the city texted 28,000 individuals on June 21, but only 4,000 went to the vaccination sites. Usually, the city is able to vaccinate around 5,000 residents within an hour or two, according to Domagoso,

Domagoso said he went to several sites on Monday and saw some residents who had no schedule waiting outside of the vaccination areas.

“Nanghihinyang naman ako baka umabsent pa sa trabaho baka yung iba talaga sinadya at nagbakasakali (I felt sorry because some of them might have skipped work or really went to the area with the hopes of getting the vaccine),” he said.

When the walk-in policy was lifted, the city was able to inoculate 18,000 in a span of four hours.

“Di talaga effective ‘yan, yung no walk-in, yung scheduling system (It’s really not effective, the no walk-in policy, the scheduling system), it will never be,” Domagoso said.

Domagoso said the goal to achieve herd immunity by September will not be achieved if walk-ins will not be allowed given that the city averages 5,000 vaccines deployed daily with a scheduling system.

“The vaccination must be made available as soon as possible. Vaccination should be made accessible and vaccination should be fast so that we can achieve the objective,” the mayor said.