The Department of Health (DOH) is set to launch a Covid-19 vaccination campaign on July 26, dubbed as "PinasLakas!," that aims to provide booster shots to eligible Filipinos and increase the vaccination rate among senior citizens.
“On July 26, the DOH, together with President Marcos and our local government units, will officially launch PinasLakas!,” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire on Wednesday, July 20.
Vergeire said the government aims to vaccinate 90 percent of target senior citizens (A2 population) and to boost 50 percent of the target population in the “first 100 days of the new administration.”
“The DOH will make vaccines more accessible and available in markets, places of worship, malls, transport terminals, offices, factories, plazas, or schools,” said Vergeire.
“Home visits will also be conducted for the A2 population,” she added.
Vergeire reported that 71.4 million Filipinos have already been fully-vaccinated against Covid-19.
Of the figure, 15.7 million individuals already received their first booster shots. Over 49 million individuals have yet to receive their first booster dose. Meanwhile, around 1.1 million people have received their second booster dose.
In a statement on Tuesday, July 19, DOH said the government needs to vaccinate more than 23 million people to “achieve 50 percent booster coverage as part of the first 100 days” of the Marcos administration.
The said figure is half of the 78.1 million target population for Covid-19 vaccination, the DOH said.
“In order to achieve this, we have to vaccinate 397,334 individuals per day for 60 days,” the DOH said.
“Doing so will strengthen the wall of immunity of our population to prevent severe and critical Covid-19 cases,” it added.
Individuals who are 12 years old and above are eligible to receive a first booster shot. The second booster shot, on the other hand, is only for senior citizens, health workers, and immunocompromised adults.
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