President Duterte on Tuesday, April 5, said he is considering to implement a house-to-house vaccination program as many Filipinos still refuse to get inoculated against Covid-19, leaving millions of vaccine doses unused.
In his "Talk to the People" public address aired Tuesday night, Duterte said the government might embark on a "last-minute" program to utilize the unused vaccine doses that are nearing expiry.
"Itong mga bakuna mag-expire, either ibigay natin sa mga countries na wala pa or siguraduhin natin na we'll embark on a program, last-minute, na mag-house-to-house na lang sa mga barangay at 'yung hindi pa nakabakunahan, kailangan lumabas na at mabakuna sila (These vaccines will expire, either we will give them to countries that are yet to procure their vaccines or we embark on a program, last-minute, that we'll go house-to-house in the barangays and those that have not yet been vaccinated should go out and get the jab)," Duterte said.
According to Duterte, there are no excess vaccine doses as the government has procured enough to fully inoculate the target Filipino population.
However, the President said it is okay with him even if the country will not achieve full Covid-19 vaccination of the target population as the government can't force those who really don't want to get inoculated.
"Binili natin 'yan sa numbers. Dapat magamit, kung hindi magamit, mag-expire 'yan, itatapon talaga natin (We purchased that in numbers. It should be utilized, if not, it will expire and we will really throw it away)," Duterte noted.
"The vaccines are here, ready to be utilized. Just in case, a good number of the Filipinos remaining and refusing to be vaccinated, wala na tayong magawa (we can't do anything about it)," he added.
During the same briefing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said around 64 to 65 million Filipinos have already been fully vaccinated, or 74 percent of the target population which is 90 million Filipinos.