By Lade Jean Kabagani | Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) on Tuesday said the fourth leg of the “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” National Vaccination Drive (NVD) will be extended until Friday (March 18).
In a media interview, NVOC chairperson and Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje lauded various vaccination teams from the local government units (LGUs), Department of Health (DOH), other national government agencies, and uniformed personnel as well as the private sector and religious sector that have exerted massive inoculation efforts in the past days of the fourth national vaccination drive.
According to Cabotaje, among the efforts to make coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines accessible to more Filipinos are the house-to-house and stall-to-stall inoculation, jabs to job sites program, “Bakuna nights” for economic workers, “Resbakuna sa Botika,” and even vaccination within the premises of churches.
Despite these massive efforts, the DOH official cited some individuals still opted not to avail of the vaccines due to complacency, low COVID-19 active cases, the hesitancy of the elderly to get vaccinated, and fear of side effects.
“Sa kabuuan, tama naman ang ating ginawa na dahil ang mga bakuna sa (In total, we have done the right thing to bring the vaccines to) work, home and offices,” she said.
Cabotaje said more than 1.4 million doses have been administered during the NVD 4, as of Monday.
She added that the NVOC granted the request of some LGUs from other regions and provinces to extend the NVD 4 so that they can meet their vaccination target for primary series and booster doses.
There’s still a need to increase the number of fully vaccinated and give booster doses to senior citizens, she said.
“Baka hindi na tayo magkaroon ng national vaccination days kasi focus na sa mga probinsyang kailangan ng tulong, doon na ibubuhos (We might not conduct another round of national vaccination days, we will be focusing on the provinces needing attention, we will pour everything to them),” Cabotaje said.
She noted that the government will work harder in areas that were not able to meet their 70 percent of vaccination target and 80 percent of their senior citizen population.
The Philippines has so far administered more than 137 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines nationwide, with over 64 million Filipinos having completed the primary series and 10.7 million having booster shots or additional doses. (PNA)
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