DOH thumbs down proposal to allot 90% of vaccine supply to NCR Plus

A DOSE OF THEIR OWN Pasay City residents on Saturday trooped to the city government’s Giga Vaccination center at SM Mall of Asia to receive the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine. —RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is not in favor of allocating 90 percent of the country’s COVID-19 vaccine supply to the NCR Plus bubble, saying this suggestion is not feasible and “not appropriate.”

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said there are other regions in the country that would also need more allocation for vaccines amid the high number of COVID-19 cases in their localities.

Vergeire was reacting to the recommendation of the OCTA Research, an interdisciplinary research group, on the allocation of vaccine doses to achieve herd immunity faster. However, the recommendation of the group was to allocate 90 percent of the vaccine supply to Metro Manila alone.

“They have recommended na parang dapat daw ng 90 percent ng allocation ay ibigay sa NCR Plus bubble, at sa tingin namin ay hindi ito posible dahil meron din tayong mga kailangang bigyan pansin na ibang rehiyon sa ating bansa,” she said in an online press briefing.

(They have recommended allocating 90 percent of the supply to the NCR Plus bubble. We think this is not possible because there are also other regions that need our attention.)

Besides, a “focused intervention” to reduce the COVID-19 cases in the NCR Plus is already being made, according to Vergeire. She said the number of cases in the bubble, which comprises Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan, and Laguna, is already going down.

She also noted that a sufficient number of doses has been allocated to the NCR Plus to protect the vulnerable sector in its covered areas.

“Allocating 90 percent of our supplies in NCR Plus bubble, tingin namin ay hindi appropriate at hindi natin kaya sa ngayon because hindi pa rin ganoon ka-stable ang supply ng bakuna,” Vergeire said.

(But for us, allocating 90 percent of our supplies in the NCR Plus is inappropriate, and we cannot do this yet because we do not have a stable supply of vaccines yet.)

EDV