Philippines
National
4th Nat'l Vax Days set on March 10 to 12 as jab rate reaches 'dramatic decline'
4th Nat'l Vax Days set on March 10 to 12 as jab rate reaches 'dramatic decline'
The national government will conduct the fourth National Vaccination Days against Covid-19 on March 10 to 12 to increase the inoculation rate which has seen a “dramatic decline” since last month.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said that the decrease in the number of people going to vaccination centers went down from as high as 27 million in November 2021 to only 8.7 million in February 2022.
“Sir, I will show you the dramatic decline in our vaccination. We would like to encourage everybody because it has been on a decline. Since November, we have more or less 27 million administered doses but this February, we have only vaccinated 8.7 million so that’s really low,” Galvez told President Duterte during the latter’s Talk to the People public address aired on Monday night, March 7.
Most of the vaccination sites were dominated by the pediatric population aged five to 11 years old and 12 to 17 years old.
“With the declaration of Alert Level 1, we have reached a saturation point in vaccination centers with only the pediatric sector that dominates our vaccination sites. Most of our vaccination sites are now vacant. We will be needing other strategies to gather more vaccinees,” Galvez said.
So far, the government has fully vaccinated 63,690,890 Filipinos which represent 82.57 percent of around 77 million target population of the government. There remains around 14 million people who have not been fully vaccinated or are only given one dose so far.
Out of the 63 million fully vaccinated individuals, only 10,554,093 people have returned to get their booster shots or around 14.63 percent of the eligible population. There remains around 53 million people who have yet to receive their booster shots.
Meanwhile, there were a total of 8,597,558 individuals aged 12 to 17 years old who have been fully vaccinated while 918,063 individuals aged five to 11 years old have received their first dose.
Galvez said that the fourth National Vaccination Days will aim to administer 1.8 million doses and raise the booster vaccination among the eligible sectors from 18 years old and above.