Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 20) — The government is modifying its vaccination strategy to protect more Filipinos against COVID-19 in the hopes of a better Christmas and safe election season.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Tuesday said they are integrating the recommendations of the private sector in the national immunization program.
The first strategy is to ramp up vaccination to achieve 1.5 million shots administered per day — a far cry from the current weeklong average of 388,000 shots daily.
Galvez said they will focus on accelerating vaccination in key cities and economic hubs to help protect the economy. He added the regions will be lumped as different “ecosystems” or “geographic area.”
The second strategy is to further protect the vaccinated and healthcare system by providing a third vaccine dose to healthcare workers and vulnerable sectors within the year. He also said a public-private task force will address the issues faced by PhilHealth. This part of the strategy includes the phased and monitored vaccination of students, teachers, and non-teaching school personnel.
“Ang ginawa po namin ‘yung ating future ops in-integrate po natin, isinama po natin sa ating tinatawag po na recalibration of our strategy. Ito na po ‘yung tinatawag nating incorporating all the recommendations of the private sector, ito na po ang gagawin po natin,” he told President Rodrigo Duterte during a televised meeting.
[Translation: We are integrating this in our future operations as part of our recalibrated strategy. This is what we call incorporating all recommendations from the private sector.]
Galvez said they are hoping to vaccinate at least 50 million of the priority population before Christmas and fully inoculating 70% of the population by the start of election campaign season in February 2022.
He also said they are recommending the appointment of a “data czar” to ensure decisions are based on accurate and up-to-date COVID-19 information.
Over 24 million individuals have received full protection from COVID-19 since the start of the vaccination program in March. However, this is still far from the revised 90% target to achieve the so-called herd immunity.
