Sen. Richard Gordon. Screen grab / Senate PRIB file photo
MANILA, Philippines — The government could consider starting its COVID-19 vaccination program inside Metro Manila and then inoculate those outside the capital as more supplies of the vaccine come into the country, Senator Richard Gordon said.
In a radio interview over DWIZ on Saturday, Gordon noted that it would cost the government P240 billion to vaccinate 60 million Filipinos at P4,000 each person.
“Pag natapos ‘yan at least makakahabol na tayo sa hanapbuhay ng mga tao. Ang hinahabol ko sana, Metro Manila muna—dahil dun ang pinakamaraming tao—tapos wala munang papasok hanggang matapos unti-unti ‘yan. ‘Yan yung mga example lang ng mga pwedeng gawin, di ko naman sinasabing yan ang prino-propose ko,” Gordon said.
(After that, people can start going back to their jobs. What I’m thinking is, vaccinate those in Metro Manila first—because that’s where a lot of our population is—and then no one can enter until the vaccination drive is completed. That’s only an example of what we can do.)
“Kung straight line ng thinking e unahin mo yung Metro Manila para makapagtrabaho na lahat…Central Luzon, Southern Luzon, dahil maraming hanapbuhay diyan at habang dumarating ang bakuna ay ikakalat mo, pero dapat may prioritization tayo dahil ang importante satin muna ay yung ekonomiya ng bayan at yung hanabuhay ng tao. Nahihirapan ang mga tao, di makapagtrabaho, e dapat makapagtrabaho na sila kaagad,” he added.
(In a straight line of thinking, Metro Manila first so that works can resume, Central Luzon, Southern Luzon, there’s a lot of jobs there, and then you go around to vaccinate people but we should have prioritization because what’s important to us now is the economy of the country and jobs. People are struggling because they were rendered jobless, they need to be able to work immediately.)
National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. previously said that the government hopes to vaccinate 60 to 70 percent of Filipinos against the coronavirus — enough to trigger herd immunity—within three to five years.
The government is banking on the Sinovac vaccine from China to be the first to reach the Philippines with officials saying it may arrive in the first quarter of 2021.
The government is looking to secure up to 25 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine.
The country has so far formally secured 2.6 million doses of vaccine from British drugmaker AstraZeneca, which are expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2021.
To date, the Philippines has recorded over 474,000 COVID-19 cases in total. Of the number, more than 439,000 have recovered while 9,244 have died.