The Philippines’s vaccination rate has started to slow down, prompting the government to recalibrate its strategies, a Department of Health official said on Saturday.
“Sa iba’t ibang kadahilanan, medyo bumagal iyong ating mga pagbabakuna sa past week,” Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said in a “Laging Handa” briefing.
Cabotaje said the country had been administering about 300,000 doses daily over the past week, which is far from its peak of 1.5 million daily.
“[M]ahirap nang abutin at ma-reach iyong ating mga iba pang segments of our population. Kaya nagri-recalibration strategies tayo,” she said.
Cabotaje added that vaccine demand had started to wane because the urgency to receive booster shots was low.
“Habang ang hesitancy ay bumaba, walang urgency iyong pagpapa-booster kasi sa karamihan sapat na iyong two dose at saka iyong ‘no vax, no entry’ hanggang two dose,” she said.
To address this, Cabotaje said the government would have information drives to increase the uptick of booster-shot administration.
The Philippines has more than 63 million fully vaccinated individuals as of March 5. John Ezekiel J. Hirro