By Maricar Cinco
Two more senators and a health advocate have urged the government to start vaccinating economic front-liners to accelerate the COVID-19 immunization program that has been slowed down by vaccine hesitancy and too much bureaucracy.Even with more available doses, lawmakers noted that the slow pace of the vaccination has put in doubt the national government’s target to reach herd immunity by the end of the year.
Vaccination chief Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said the government aimed to inoculate up to 50 million people by September to reduce hospitalization and death and as many as 70 million by November to contain the virus spread.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian cited the case of his home city, Valenzuela, where only 20 percent of its eligible population had signed up since the registration started two months ago and only 19 percent of the elderly group showed up for a shot.
Bureaucracy
“[The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases]should bump up all A4s and allow [the] general public to be vaccinated,” Gatchalian said in a tweet on Monday.
Gatchalian said that given the current pace, “we will not hit [at least] 50 million herd immunity by [the] end of the year. Vaccines will also spoil.”
The A4 category in the vaccination priority list refers to economic front-line workers such as public transportation drivers, security guards and market vendors. The vaccination plan currently covers the top three priorities—healthcare workers, seniors and persons with medical conditions.
Reopen economy
Sen. Nancy Binay last week also urged the Department of Health (DOH) to consider vaccinating the A4 group with the 2 million doses of AstraZeneca from COVAX, a global initiative to help countries access COVID vaccines. This is made urgent by the fact that about 1.5 million doses are due to expire on June 30 and the rest on July 31. —WITH A REPORT FROM BEN O. DE VERA INQ
Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net
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