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Maskless Christmas may be delayed - Duque

Philippines | National

Maskless Christmas may be delayed - Duque

By Jhon Aldrin Casinas

A maskless Christmas may be unlikely this year as the country still does not have enough supply of coronavirus vaccine to achieve the target “population protection” by end of the year.

“Mukhang made-delay ‘yun (It seems that it will be delayed),” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in an interview over radio DZBB on Friday, July 16, referring to the aim of a “mask-free” Christmas celebration this year.

“‘Wag muna nating asahan ‘yan kasi mafu-frustrate lang tayo na umaasa tayo, pinaaasa natin ang taumbayan eh hindi naman natin kontrolado ang supply (Let's not expect that because we will only be frustrated since we do not control the supply),” he added.

The Department of Health (DOH) chief explained that the country would need 25 million doses per month in order to achieve population protection in the next 140 days.

“Kaya kung possible bang umabot ito sa first quarter ng 2022 ay pwedeng-pwede (So if it is possible that it would reach in the first quarter of 2022, it is possible),” Duque said.

Last month, the government expressed optimism that the country can celebrate the holiday season this year without the mandatory masks.

The government earlier reported more than 10 million people have now received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, at least 4 million of which have already got their second dose.

So far, the country received the delivery of a total of 22,930,710 doses of coronavirus vaccines.

The Philippines broke its record in the number of coronavirus vaccinations in a single day twice this week.

National Task Force Against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer Secretary Vince Dizon said the country administered a record-high of over 391,000 vaccine doses on July 15.

The latest figure surpassed the previous record of 375,000 shots administered on July 12.

Related Tags

maskless Christmas covid-19 vaccination Duque doh

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