The Department of Health (DOH) said it is “doing everything” it can to administer at least 23 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in the first 100 days of the Marcos administration.
DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said they have no plans to lower their target for the PinasLakas campaign.
“Unang-una, ayaw muna natin galawin ang targets. We’d like to accomplish this as much as possible dahil ito yung kailangan ng populasyon,” said Vergeire during the a press briefing on Tuesday, Aug. 9.
“Ito yung kailangan para maitaas yung immunity ng population. That is why we are doing the very best we can so that we can be able to still ramp up coverage for the first boosters as well as for our senior citizens,”she added.
Vergeire, however, admitted that they are having challenges in meeting their daily vaccination target.
“Admittedly for this past days, medyo mababa po talaga ang output natin,” she said.
Since the launch of the PinasLakas campaign last July 26, there have been a total of 441,995 booster shots administered as of Aug. 7. Also, there have been 750,407 booster shots administered from July 6 to 25.
“We already have 1,192,402 as cumulative accomplishments para dito sa PinasLakas campaign for the first booster. And this is about five percent of our targeted eligible population of 23.8 million,” noted Vergeire.
If they would be unable to reach their target, Vergeire said they would just have to further intensify their vaccination efforts.
“Kung hindi natin maachieve at makita natin halimbawa dumating tayo ng October 8 at kulang—50 percent lang ang naabot natin, then that gives us more initiatives or more push para ipagpatuloy pa natin at gumawa pa ng ibang estratehiya para mas itaas pa natin ang pagbabakuna,” she said.