WHO PH lauds Pasig City LGU after completing 1st dose COVID-19 vaccination for elderly residents

The World Health Organization (WHO) Philippines has commended the Pasig City local government after all of its eligible senior citizen residents were able to receive their first dose of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine.
In a Facebook post on Friday, August 6, WHO Philippines said that WHO Representative to the Philippines Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe visited Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto to “commend his leadership and efforts of Pasig City authorities to protect their most vulnerable citizens.”
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“I visited Pasig City yesterday and I’m exceptionally happy to learn how the LGU was able to vaccinate all their senior citizens,” said Abeyasinghe.
“Here’s an LGU that has done all in its capacity to maximally protect the most vulnerable people, their senior citizens by the rational use of available limited vaccines. I am happy that this will help save the highest number of lives possible among the vulnerable,” he added.
The WHO Philippines encouraged the other LGUs in the Philippines to boost their respective vaccination activities.
“WHO calls for LGUs to ramp up efforts to vaccinate all senior citizens. Protecting the most vulnerable, especially now with the circulation of fast-spreading variants, will save more lives,” it said.
The 44,703 senior citizens of Pasig City, who are eligible for vaccination, were given the first dose, of which, 84 percent of them are already fully vaccinated, said Sotto last July 22.
Recently, the WHO Philippines has expressed its concern over the ”sluggish COVID-19 vaccination rate among senior citizens in some LGUs.”
“The slow rollout among senior citizens leaves the Philippines vulnerable to its hospitals being overwhelmed due to severe cases among the elderly, and possibly higher deaths due to a surge in cases from the fast-spreading Delta variant confirmed to be locally transmitted,” it said in a statement last July 30.
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