Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 10) — Vice President Leni Robredo is pushing for the faster rollout of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program to also speed up the economic recovery.
In her video message, Robredo said the government should set better goals to achieve herd immunity especially during this time that many Filipinos already lost their jobs due to the global health crisis. Herd immunity is when a large part of a population is immune to an infectious disease.
“Dapat ‘yong goal natin better than 2023,” she said. “Nakakapag-alala ‘yon kasi as of now, ang daming naghihirap na mga Pilipino, ang dami nang nawalan ng trabaho, so dapat ‘yong goal natin the faster na mabakunahan ang mas maraming tao.”
[Translation: Our goal should be better than 2023. This is worrisome because as of now, many Filipinos are suffering, many lost their job, so our goal should be faster vaccination of many people.]
The faster Filipinos are immunized against COVID-19, the faster we can go back to normal, she said.
The Philippine economy contracted by 9.5% in 2020 due to dampened consumer spending and business activity caused by the pandemic. As of October, the country has an unemployment rate of 8.7% which translates to 3.8 million people.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a recent briefing that they intend to finish vaccinating the target population by 2023 with the approved plan by national authorities. She noted, however, that this can also be achieved even before that year.
The government is targeting to acquire 148 million vaccine doses and inoculate up to 70 million people aged 18 years old and above this year, with health care workers first in line. They are followed by senior citizens, person with comorbidities, frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel, and the indigent population.
READ: LIST: Priority sectors, subgroups in COVID-19 vaccination program
Vaccine procurement efforts are also being done, with some local government units even allocating funds for their own purchase through tripartite agreements.
However, surveys earlier conducted revealed that many Filipinos are rather not willing to be vaccinated due to concerns on safety, efficacy, and cost.
Robredo said if needed to be the first one and in public, she said she is willing to be inoculated if it will help boost vaccine confidence of Filipinos.
