NextGen Day

Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the lead implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19, said on Saturday that the government has been working nonstop to ensure that the Covid-19 vaccine program continues to progress.

Despite a delayed start due to restricted vaccine supplies globally last year, Galvez said the daily inoculation rate increased from a few thousand doses to millions of jabs when bulk shipments began to arrive in the third quarter of 2021.

“First and foremost, despite the challenges we continue to encounter, the Philippine government remains committed, more than ever, to vaccinating all qualifying Filipinos against Covid-19,” Galvez said in a statement, responding to a World Bank assessment on the country’s tardy vaccination implementation.

Galvez claimed that the government’s “huge and unprecedented” vaccination initiatives, which began in March of last year, were successful in raising vaccine uptake as well as scaling up the inoculation capacities of local government units (LGUs).

“The much-touted bayanihan (collaboration) spirit among all sectors of society and levels of government shone through and has been at the heart of the national government’s pandemic response and mitigation efforts,” he said.

Factors that cause a slowdown

External constraints, however, impeded the government’s capacity to optimize such collaborations and slowed immunization efforts, according to Galvez.

“The onslaught of Typhoon Odette in December was one of these elements, and its effects in key locations across the Visayas and Mindanao are still being felt and addressed by the government to this day. The typhoon hit six locations throughout the country, all of which were in the process of increasing vaccination rates “he stated

According to Galvez, the disaster compelled LGUs to temporarily halt their rollouts in order to react to emergency needs for food, medication, and shelter.

“Moreover, some of our local chief executives’ attention is being diverted from the effective implementation of their immunization push, which we believe is the more vital work at hand,” he added.

Galvez believes that, in the face of a new wave of Covid-19 cases, local officials would put their personal interests aside and prioritize the health and safety of their residents.

Threats from communist terrorist groups (CTGs) in so-called Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas are also having an impact on pandemic response.

“The CTGs have been a big source of concern among our LGUs, whose inoculation efforts have been hampered significantly whenever villages are attacked,” he said.

According to Galvez, the reasons affecting each country’s vaccination program differ.

“Many of our neighbors in the region do not face the same challenges that we do, such as our country’s unique geographical landscape of around 7,640 islands, where delivering vaccines to far-flung communities can be a major logistical challenge, or being frequently hit by typhoons that leave a swath of destruction,” he added.

Report

“Slower vaccination and higher mobility during the holiday season are the likely causes why the Philippines is one of the first to experience an Omicron variant surge in the region, recording higher cases per capita than other ASEAN countries, as of Jan. 11,” according to a World Bank report released on January 19.

Galvez stated that the country’s commercial sector could no longer be held hostage by the health problem, implying that the economy must be further opened while the required health and safety procedures are in place.

“While this may be true to some level,” Galvez said, “surely the World Bank knows the necessity to strike a balance between protecting people’s health and reviving the economy.”

Vaccine advantages

According to Galvez, the Philippines had very low Covid-19 caseloads and positive rates in December, continuing a pattern that began in the third quarter, when vaccination rates considerably increased due to more consistent and larger vaccine delivery.

“However, past surges, such as the one triggered by the Delta variety, have taught the Philippines valuable lessons. The country’s health-care system is now better prepared and able to deal with such spikes, according to experts “Added him. “This is why, as we continue to scale up our immunization program, the national government continues to engage and drive programs with private sector partners.”

The government is cooperating with private drug store chains and health institutions to increase the administration of booster shots.

“We are optimistic that with this new program and a combined effort from all sectors of society, we will be able to reach our objective of fully inoculating 77 million Filipinos within this quarter and administering booster doses to more than 72 million Filipinos,” Galvez said.

“Relax, the national government will continue to develop better and more effective ways to strengthen our vaccination program so that we can get Covid-19 vaccines into the hands of as many Filipinos as possible as quickly as possible, end the pandemic, and rebuild our nation’s economy,” he added.

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