MANILA, Philippines — Local government units (LGUs) that are not prepared for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout will not receive supplies from the national government in order to make sure that not a single dose of the drug will be put to waste.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. issued this warning Tuesday, as he announced in a televised briefing that the National Task Force against Covid-19 will inspect the readiness of all LGUs two weeks before the distribution of vaccines.
“Titignan namin ‘yung mga preparation kasi hindi namin sila bibigyan ng bakuna hanggang hindi pa sila ready. Kasi ayaw po namin na may masayang na bakuna,” Galvez said.
(We will look at their preparation because we won’t give them vaccines if they are not ready. We don’t want the vaccines to go to waste.)
“So kailangan, ang importante, when we inspect, tinitignan po namin ang readiness nila, ‘yung capacity nila at ‘yung kapabilidad ng leadership nila na makuha ‘yung herd immunity as soon as possible,” he added.
(What’s important is that when we inspect, we’re looking at their readiness, capacity, and the capability of their leadership to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible.)
The national government already has an approved plan for mass immunization against Covid-19.
Among its salient points include LGUs’ establishment of vaccination operations centers as soon as possible, appropriately equipped vaccine storage, and a master list of vaccine recipients, among others.