The Philippines’ accelerated Covid-19 vaccine deployment was hailed as among the most laudable by G20 (Group of Twenty), an influential intergovernmental forum comprised of 19 countries and the European Union (EU).
At the Talk to the People public address of President Duterte on Monday night, April 18, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said that the G20 “acknowledged that the Philippines is an example country in the acceleration of vaccine deployment.”
“We were cited despite the challenges that we have before where we had low vaccine coverage and supply during the early stages. But we were able to accelerate our vaccination program and they saw that we were able to increase our coverage,” Galvez said.
As of April 17, a total of 66,854,770 individuals have been fully vaccinated in the Philippines which represent 74.28 percent of the 90 million target population.
Meanwhile, 71,951,318 individuals or 79.95 percent of the target population have also received at least one dose.
Through its strategic communication plan, Galvez said that the government managed to raise the vaccine willingness among Filipinos from 36 percent to 87 percent, which prompted more individuals to get vaccinated.
“Napakalaking karangalan ito sa Pilipinas kasi napakalaking evaluation ito ng UNICEF, Gavi, at international community na inilalagay ang Pilipinas na isang ehemplo (This is a big honor for the Philippines since it is a huge evaluation by the UNICEf, Gavi, and the international community which put the Philippines as an example) in terms of reducing vaccine hesitancy and increasing demand for Covid-19 vaccine including the risk communication and community engagement,” Galvez said.
Situation
With the accelerated Covid-19 vaccination program, Galvez revealed that all areas nationwide are already “categorized as minimal risks with no significant area under granular lockdown.”
This, despite the loosening of border controls and the occurence of super spreader events like the Lenten season, Ramadan, and the enormous political rallies by the different candidates.
Galvez said all the areas in three out of the 17 regions have already been placed under Alert Level 1, the most relaxed Covid-19 status. These are the National Capital Region, Ilocos (Region 1), and Central Luzon (Region 3).
Meanwhile, 39 of 81 provinces (48.14 percent), 36 out of 39 highly urbanized cities (HUcs) and independent component cities (ICCS) (90.47 percent), and 300 out of 1,205 municipalities (32.61 percent) were already placed under Alert Level 1.
“Hopefully, others can gather 70 percent fully vaccinated among its target population and 90 percent among senior citizens so we can have all our areas under Alert Level 1,” Galvez said.