FILE PHOTO: Taguig City officially opened its 8th vaccination hub on the second floor of B7, Lane P, Bonifacio High Street East in Fort Bonifacio. TAGUIG LGU PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The business sector has committed to making available spaces in malls and hotel ballrooms for the setting up of around 5,000 vaccination centers to allow the inoculation of 58 million Filipinos against COVID-19 by the end of the year.
Senator Panfilo Lacson said this was among the points discussed during a Thursday night meeting he had with Senate President Tito Sotto III and the government’s pandemic czars.
Tito and I had a good meeting with 3 czars last night to discuss red tape issues and the funding needs hounding the country’s fight against Covid. With proper budget and lots of help from the business sector and LGU’s, herd immunity may yet still be achieved. Cooperation is key.
— PING LACSON (@iampinglacson) May 6, 2021
“[We talked about the] business sector’s commitment to making available spaces in malls and hotel ballrooms for some 5,000 vaccination centers, 1,200 of which are in the NCR (National Capital Region), that can accomplish to inoculate some 58 million Filipinos by year-end – assuming that enough doses will arrive as scheduled which they said they are pursuing around the clock,” Lacson told INQUIRER.net in a message Friday.
“Meantime, continuous simulations are being done to ensure efficiency at the proper time,” he added.
There are over 3,500 vaccination sites across 17 regions in the country as of May 4.
Data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed that of the 4,040,600 available COVID-19 vaccine doses in the country, 3,970,680 have so far been distributed to the vaccination sites.
Meanwhile, a total of 2,065,235 doses have already been administered to Filipinos since the start of the government’s vaccine rollout, according to the DOH.