The government is planning to conduct “special vaccination days” in areas that still have low vaccination rates, an official of the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) said.
“Ang nakita namin is puwede tayong mag-launch ng special vaccination days in certain areas (What we can do is we can launch special vaccination days in certain areas),” said NVOC Co-Lead Dr. Kezia Lorraine Rosario.
“Most likely before the end of the month may special vaccination days gagawin sa Cebu Province kasi ang Cebu Province iyong pinakamataas na with unvaccinated na province (there will be special vaccination days in Cebu Province because it is the province with the highest number of unvaccinated people),” she added.
Rosario said they are also looking at conducting the program in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and "certain provinces" in Soccsksargen.
“Ang gagawin po ng gobyerno ay talagang titingnan siya area per area (What the government will do is really to monitor each area). So we are moving more granularly to each local government unit, understanding the intricacies per area,” she said.
“Ngayon titingnan na natin, i-focus na natin iyong ating mga vaccination doon sa mga areas na marami pang unvaccinated at pag-aralan natin na (Now, we will focus our vaccinations on those areas that have a lot of unvaccinated and we will analyze) how we can provide the services better sa mga areas na ito (in these areas),” she added.
Rosario said that the government is eager to achieve its target of fully vaccinating 70 million Filipinos by the end of March. So far, 65 million individuals are now fully vaccinated.
“Sa mga adult population natin, konti na lang iyong remaining unvaccinated so mas mahirap silang hanapin, mas mahirap silang i-convince (In our adult population, only few people remain unvaccinated so it's harder to find and convince them),” she said.
“Kasi most likely itong mga nahuling hindi pa nababakunahan ay ito rin iyong mga population na may doubts pa, may fears pa, may hesitation pa so mas mahirap iyong pag-encourage sa kanila at saka pagbigay sa kanila ng vaccination (Most likely, these people who have not been vaccinated are also those populations who still have doubts, fears, hesitations so it is more difficult to encourage them and get them vaccinated),” she added.