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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DOH lacks 'agility' to protect the people, says expert

DOH lacks 'agility' to protect the people, says expert

Published Jun 11, 2022 04:13 pm

The Department of Health (DOH) is keen on educating the public about the Covid-19 pandemic, but it lacks the “agility” or sense of urgency in protecting the people, a public health expert said.

(Tara Yap / Manila Bulletin)

Health reform advocate and former special adviser of the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 Dr. Anthony “Tony” Leachon, on Friday, June 10, said that the DOH is doing good in terms of educating the public, but it lacks the so-called “agility” in protecting Filipinos.

“Hindi naman nagkukulang ang Department of Health . Ang kulang ng DOH is the agility to protect the people, dapat dinistribute na agad nila yung mga bakuna outside the National Capital Region (NCR), para yung autonomy ay mapabilis nila. Dapat i-decentralize na nila ang bakuna at this point in time. (In terms of reminding the people, the DOH is not lacking. What the DOH lacks is the agility to protect the people. They must immediately distribute the vaccines outside NCR, so that the autonomy can be accelerated. They should have decentralized the vaccine at this point in time),” said Leachon in an interview over DZRH.

The DOH’s National Covid-19 Vaccination Dashboard showed that as of June 4, a total of 70,008,259 individuals in the country have completed their primary vaccine dose. Of this number, the number of boosted Filipinos remained low at 14,474,664.

This, according to Leachon, is one of the reasons why Metro Manila should not lift its face mask mandate yet, reiterating that it may cause another surge, especially amid waning vaccine immunity and emerging Covid-19 variants.

The expert, however, stated that there are still ways to increase the booster rate in the Philippines.

“Madali lang naman . kung ikakalat ng DOH sa lahat ng ahensya ng pamahalaan at ibibigay sa private sector ang mandato na magbakuna na (It is easy to increase the booster rate. This is if the DOH grants all government agencies, private sector, and medical communities the mandate to vaccinate),” he added.

“Dapat ay lagyan natin ito ng timeline. Let us say, 30 days – naman natin Disyembre, bakit hindi natin kayang gawin ngayon? (We should put a timeline on it. Let us say, 30 days – we did this in December, why can’t we do it now?),” he furthered.

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covid-19 Department of Health (DOH) Vaccination Program Dr. Tony Leachon
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