Due to the recent spike of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections, the country’s vaccination rate has slowed down, said the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 on Monday, Jan. 10.
“Ang gusto nating rate ay 1 million to 1.5 million per day. Unfortunately, dahil sa ating surge ng cases, some of ating doctors and nurses ay nare-recall sa ating COVID wards. May mga vaccinators din tayo na nai-infect, so nag q-quarantine sila ng ilang araw bago sila makabalik, so bumabagal ang ating vaccination rate (We are aiming for a rate of 1 million to 1.5 million per day. Unfortunately, due to the surge of cases, some of our doctors and nurses were re-called in the COVID wards. We also have vaccinators who have been infected, so they subject themselves to quarantine for a few days before returning, that’s why our vaccination rate has slowed down),” said Dr. Teodoro “Ted” Herbosa in the “Laging Handa” public briefing.
Meanwhile, Herbosa added that some local government units (LGUs) opted to continue the use of mobile vaccinations due to the lack of personnel who will run the inoculation drive in vaccination centers.
He likewise said that in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), booster inoculations were temporarily halted due to the lack of manpower amid the increase of COVID-19 viral transmission.
“Ganon din kami sa PGH. In fact sa PGH, hininto muna namin ang pagbabakuna ng booster doses sapagkat kulang na kami ng doctor at nurse na maga-admit lang doon sa COVID areas (So are we in PGH. In fact in PGH, we temporarily halted vaccinating booster doses because we don’t have enough doctors and nurses to admit only in the COVID areas),” he added.
Data from the National COVID-19 vaccination dashboard showed that as of Sunday, Jan. 9, a total of 113,364,030 vaccine doses have so far been administered in the Philippines. Of this number, only 52,393,229 have received the complete vaccine jabs.