Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson agrees on vaccinating the general public who wants to be vaccinated, regardless of their priority group. This, after Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. proposed to recalibrate their vaccination strategy beginning 4th quarter of 2021.
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the 2022 budget for the Department of Health, the 3rd term senator asked if DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III is agreeable to the new policy. To this, the Health Secretary said that a bigger jab rate should indeed be opened to the general public, but suggested that there still be express lanes for senior citizens and people with comorbidities.
“Sa akin, ang importante po ‘yung jab rate target ay at least 1 million a day to as high as 1.3 million a day. If we’re able to do this, we might actually reach population protection or 50% of population inoculated by 10th of December,” said Sec. Duque.
As of Oct. 19, a total of 53,315,069 doses of COVID vaccines have been inoculated in the Philippines. Of this number, 24,694,717 have been fully vaccinated. Over 91 million doses of vaccine have arrived in the country since February and we are currently averaging at only about 500,000 jabs daily.
According to Lacson, the country has already secured about 195 million doses of COVID vaccines. And DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje confirmed that the remaining 100 million doses are expected to arrive in the coming months.
Lacson, who is running for president under Partido Reporma, has always put a close watch on the national vaccination program, saying that that the government should be “transparent” and should exercise “restraint” in spending the country’s already limited resources.
The senator has also expressed the need to inspire unity to encourage Filipinos to be inoculated. “We should get vaccinated not so much due to the fear of being arrested if we refuse, but because we have the Bayanihan spirit.”
