Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Monday said most of the country’s vaccination centers had been mostly empty since Alert Level 1 was imposed on March 1.
“With the declaration of Alert Level 1, we have been experiencing saturation point in our vaccination centers with only the pediatric sector that dominates our vaccination sites…iyong ating mga vaccination site talagang karamihan bakante,” Galvez told President Rodrigo Duterte in the latter’s “Talk to the People” address.
Galvez said the government would deploy new strategies to encourage vaccination during the national vaccination drive scheduled for March 10-12.
“[D]ito po ay hihikayatin na bumalik sa mga dapat maka-receive ng second dose ay atin pong palalawakin din dahil kasi karamihan po sa mga second dosers natin ay hindi po nakabalik,” he said.
Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje earlier 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.
The country’s vaccination rate waned in February, Galvez said.
“Since November po, mayroon tayong more or less 27 million na na-administer na doses. But this February, ang atin pong nabakunahan lang is 8.7 million,” he said.
The Philippines has more than 63.7 million fully vaccinated individuals, of which 10.5 million have received booster shots. John Ezekiel J. Hirro