Duterte says vaccination should be done day and night if possible so there’ll be no wastage of expiring vaccines
(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a much faster vaccine rollout, directing his vaccine czar to start giving the vaccine doses to the country’s essential workers, including policemen and soldiers, and also to the poor communities, so millions of people would get immunized against COVID-19, and the country could achieve herd immunity faster.
Duterte said his order is urgent because he doesn’t want any wastage of donated vaccines from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVAX Facility which are set to expire this July, particularly the over 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines recently delivered to the country.
The President tasked vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., to do the vaccine rollout day and night as much as possible so all vaccines could be administered immediately.
He also directed him to already vaccinate the country’s soldiers and policemen since they are needed to secure the country and maintain peace and order. They also have to congregate in groups as part of their job.
Duterte directed him to immediately start vaccinating the country’s essential workers (A4) and the poor (A5).
The poor particularly are allowed to be vaccinated using COVAX deliveries, Malacanang earlier said. This way, the doses that are expiring by July would be administered fast. Because the poor or indigent communities are included in the COVAX guidelines, the government would not be violating any COVAX policy and would still get additional vaccines.
-Go down to the poor communities-
“My request to you early on sa pag-umpisa nito na unahin ninyo ‘yong mga mahihirap. Kung may — if there is a difficulty in getting them out of their respective communities, kayo na ang papasok doon, enter the place, and do the vaccination there. Kasi with that, some maybe may mag-lecture about the advantages of getting the (vaccine),” Duterte said in his order Monday night, May 17, to Galvez.
The President also directed Galvez to go down to the barangays to distribute and administer vaccines to more people. He said the public should not be looking at vaccine brands anymore, and just get the vaccines that are delivered to them.
-Don’t be choosy on vaccine brands, Duterte tells public-
“Kung mahirap ka man o mayaman, kung gusto mo, pumunta ka doon sa vaccination sites. If you are there in that community, go there and have yourselves vaccinated by any of the vaccines available. They are all potent. They are all effective. So wala — there’s no reason for you really to be choosy about it,” he said.
“Hindi ako papayag na magpili-pili. Kung ano ‘yong nasa harap mo, ‘yon na. Pareho — pareho lang ‘yan lahat,” he said.
“Sir, we will comply po, sir. And then ang gagawin po talaga po natin, sir, pupuntahan natin sir ‘yong mga population areas para at least doon natin maano sir — maibigay ‘yong para sa mga mahihirap, sir,” Galvez replied.
Duterte said that if the deliveries of more vaccines come in as projected by Galvez, particularly his expectation that by June there would be more than 20 million vaccine doses, then the rollout should be faster. If the vaccination is done at the barangay level efficiently, “we will be safe” Duterte said.
“We are nearing — maybe if the projections of [Secretary] Galvez will come true, if the vaccines will arrive on time and we can continue receiving it and distributing it, and putting it into the chain of command down the line to the barangay levels, we are safe, we are safe,” the President said in his meeting and Talk to the People Monday night, May 17.
-Prioritize soldiers, policemen and their families-
Because of the concern of President Duterte about soldiers and policemen, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said that they would also set up vaccination sites in military and police camps. There will also be “Institutional-based vaccinations” as well as vaccination involving the private sector, he said.
“Did I not tell you the last time that ang mga sundalo unahin?” Duterte reminded Galvez.
The vaccine czar replied: “Sir, ito po, next week or next month.”
The President also ordered Galvez to vaccinate even the families of soldiers and policemen.
“Sundalo pati pulis, lahat. Pati iyong — kung madala nila ‘yang pamilya nila, okay na, tutal nandiyan na ‘yong mga bakuna,” he said.
“Ang sabi ko nga we must use them as fast as we can because they have a shelf life. May sariling expiry ‘yan and the period is too short that if you dilly-dally, you run the risk of wasting the (vaccines).”
“Kaya as — as many as we can, kung maaari lang day and night para we will not have a stock of spoiled medication,” he said.
The President said that if the policemen and soldiers are not vaccinated, and they are always grouping together, this would put them in a difficult situation.
“Paunahin ko ‘yong mga pulis pati military because sila ‘yong asahan ko. I cannot — you know, ‘pag may — they are very — their role is very important. For any reason there’s trouble, ‘yang mga sundalo ko pati pulis tapos walang bakuna, eh mahirap ‘yon. They group together, so they must have the vaccine. So sabi mo ngayon na give them the priority. Pati ‘yong pamilya nila okay na rin, hindi sila na… As long as there are the vaccines, we will give it to everybody,” he told Galvez.
The vaccine czar is targeting to vaccinate as many as 500,000 a day by June. The priority regions are the so-called NCR plus eight: Metro Manila, and the provinces in Region IV-A (CALABARZON), Region III (Central Luzon), Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao
(Eagle News Service)
