By Alec Go
President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday (April 5) said the government will resort to house-to-house COVID-19 vaccination in barangays to address concerns of vaccine expiration and wastage.
During his Talk to the People, Duterte said there is “no excess” in terms of the country’s vaccine supply since the government also bought what is “commensurate to the number of Filipinos that would be vaccinated.”
“Itong mga bakuna mag-expire. Either ibigay natin ito sa mga countries na wala pa, or siguraduhin natin na ano na lang — we’ll embark on a program last minute na mag-house-to-house na lang sa mga barangay,” he said.
“Yung hindi pa nabakunahan, marami pa ‘yan. Kailangan lumabas na at magpabakuna na sila,” he added.
According to the Department of Health (DOH), the country’s estimated vaccine wastage as of April 3 is only 1.54% or 3,760,983 doses out of the total 244,506,480 total vaccines in its inventory.
“The shelf life ng bakuna is not by years, it’s only by months. So, kailangan magamit. Ngayon, kung hindi magamit, mag-expire ‘yan, itatapon talaga natin ‘yan,” Duterte said.
“I-deliver natin ang vaccines sa bahay-bahay, sa bukid. Kayong mga NPA [New People’s Army], huwag ninyong barahin ang mga tao na aakyat diyan, especially the health workers,” he added.
DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said the reported 25 million to 27 million expiring vaccines this July are from the donations of COVAX Facility and from the procurement of the private sector.
Jab drives
The government said it will continue working on the vaccination of select areas and expand booster administration coverage which is currently at 25% of the total 46.4 million eligible individuals.
National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the vaccination program is facing low turnout during vaccination days, declining daily jab output, and low coverage in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Based on NTF data, only 27.24% of BARMM’s 3.5 million are fully vaccinated, prompting the conduct of special vaccination days in May. –gb
