By Civ Alonzo-Cruz
Presidential Adviser for COVID-19 Response Vince Dizon said that the government will continue its vaccination drive even during campaign and election period next year to reach the country’s total herd immunity threshold in the Laging Handa briefing on Tuesday, December 14.
“Hindi po tayo pwedeng huminto sa ating pagbabakuna. Tuloy tuloy ‘yan kahit sa kampanya, kahit sa eleksyon, tuloy-tuloy po tayo,” Dizon said.
He also ensures the public that candidates for the upcoming national and local elections would not use the government’s vaccination drive for their political agendas.
“Sisiguraduhin natin na hindi magagamit ang pagbabakuna sa pamumulitika. Neutral po ito at diretso tayo sa taong bayan,” Dizon said.
Earlier, National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) chief and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said that the government aims to finish vaccinating people before the election period comes.
“We have upgraded our [total herd immunity] threshold to 90% and considering, we have factors of elections, we have to finish that before elections which is February (2022),” Galvez said at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 during the arrival of 728,910 Pfizer vaccine doses in September.
Meanwhile, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has approved the request of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to conduct nationwide mock polls on December 29.
The mock poll of the COMELEC aims to ensure the safety of the actual polls by putting preventive measures and implementing standard health protocols amid the threat of the May 2022 elections being a super spreader event of COVID-19 virus. -rir
